ASSISTANT-SURGEONS

(RANKING AS FIRST LIEUTENANT).

PART II.

REGULATIONS OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT, FROM THE REVISED REGULATIONS FOR THE ARMY.

(Approved August 10, 1861.)

ARTICLE XLIV.

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

1266. The medical supplies for the army are prescribed in the standard supply tables.

1267. The medical purveyors and the senior medical officer of each hospital, post, or command, will make the necessary requisitions for medical and hospital supplies, in duplicate (Form 1). If the supplies are to be obtained from the principal purveying depôts, the requisitions will be made upon the Surgeon-General on the 31st day of December annually; if from department or field depôts, they will be made upon the medical director at such times and for such periods as he may direct. Good vaccine matter will be kept on hand by timely requisition on the Surgeon-General.

1268. The medical purveyors at the principal depôts will issue medical and hospital supplies only on the order of the SurgeonGeneral; those at department or field depôts will issue on the order of a medical director. In particular and urgent cases, issues may be made on a special requisition (Form 2), approved by a commanding officer; a like authority will be required in transfers of medical supplies.

1269. When it is necessary to purchase medical supplies, and recourse cannot be had to a medical disbursing officer, they may be procured by the quartermaster on a special requisition (Form 2) and account (Form 3).

1270. When any requisition for medical supplies is not according to the supply table, the reason therefor must be set out.

1271. In every case of special requisition, a duplicate of the requisition shall, at the same time, be transmitted to the SurgeonGeneral for his information, giving the name and station of the officer upon whom it is made.

1272. Medical purveyors will make to the Surgeon-General, at the end of each fiscal quarter, returns in duplicate (Form 4) of

medical supplies received, issued, and remaining on hand, stating to whom, or from whom, and where and when issued or received; other medical officers in charge of medical supplies make similar returns of them annually, on the 31st December; and all officers, when relieved from the duty to which their returns relate. The returns will show the condition of the stores, and particularly of the instruments, bedding, and furniture. Medical purveyors will furnish abstracts of receipts and issues, with their returns (Form 5), giving the name of the person from whom received and to whom issued.

1273. An officer transferring medical supplies will furnish a certified invoice to the officer who is to receive them, and transmit a duplicate of it to the Surgeon-General. The receiving officer will furnish a receipt to the officer making the issue, with a report of the quality and condition of the articles, and transmit a duplicate of the receipt and report to the Surgeon-General. A medical officer who turns over medical supplies to a quartermaster for storage or transportation will forward to the Surgeon-General, with the invoice, the quartermaster's receipt for the packages.

1274. Medical officers will take up and account for all medical supplies of the army that come into their possession, and report, when they know it, to whose account they are to be credited.

1275. In all official lists of medical supplies the articles will be entered in the order of the supply table.

1276. Medical disbursing officers will, at the end of each fiscal quarter, render to the Surgeon-General, in duplicate, a quarterly account current of moneys received and expended, with the proper vouchers for the payments, and certificates that the services have been rendered, and the supplies purchased and received for the medical service, and transmit to him an estimate of the funds required for the next quarter.

1277. The senior medical officer of a hospital will distribute the patients, according to convenience and the nature of their complaints, into wards or divisions, under the particular charge of the several assistant-surgeons, and will visit them himself each day, as frequently as the state of the sick may require, accompanied by the assistant, steward, and nurse.

1278. His prescriptions of medicine and diet are written down at once in the proper register, with the name of the patient and the number of his bed; the assistants fill up the diet table for the day, and direct the administration of the prescribed medicines. He will detail an assistant-surgeon to remain at the hospital day and night, when the state of the sick requires it.

1279. In distributing the duties of his assistants, he will ordinarily require the aid of one in the care and preparation of the hospital reports, registers, and records, the rolls and descriptive lists; and of another in the charge of the dispensary, instruments, medicines, hospital expenditures, and the preparation of the requisitions and annual returns.