PART IV. CIRCULAR NO. 1. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D. C., May 5, 1862. Medical officers will account semi-annually (June 30th and December 31st) to the Chief Medical Director of the Military Department in which they are serving, for all the medical and hospital property in their possession, and also to this office. They will make at the same time, to the Surgeon-General, a "Semi-Annual Return of Knapsacks," stating their condition and from whom received. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. CIRCULAR NO. 2. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D. C., May 21, 1862. In the Monthly Reports of Sick and Wounded, the following details will be briefly mentioned in accompanying remarks: SURGERY. Fractures.-The date of reception, the situation, character, direction, treatment, and result in all cases. Gunshot Wounds. The date of reception, the situation, direction, and character, the foreign matters extracted (if any), and the result in all cases. Amputations. The period and nature of the injury, the character of the operation, the time, place, and result. Exsections. All operations for, with a statement of the injury demanding them, the date of injury, the date of operation, the joint or bone operated upon, and the result. MEDICINE. Fevers.-Their character and symptoms, an outline of the plans of treatment found most efficient, with remarks on the location and sanitary condition of camps, or quarters, during the prevalence of these disorders. Diarrhea and Dysentery.-Grade and treatment, with remarks on the character of the ration, and the modes of cooking. Scorbutic Diseases.-Character and symptoms, with observations on causation, and a statement of the means employed to procure exemption. Respiratory Diseases.-Symptoms, severity, and treatment, with remarks on the sheltering of the troops, and the atmospheric conditions. Similar remarks on other preventible diseases. Important cases of every kind should be reported in full. Where post-mortem examinations have been made, accounts of the pathological results should be carefully prepared. As it is proposed to establish in Washington an Army Medical Museum, medical officers are directed diligently to collect and to forward to the office of the Surgeon-General, all specimens of morbid anatomy, surgical or medical, which may be regarded as valuable; together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed, and such other matters as may prove of interest in the study of military medicine or surgery. These objects should be accompanied by short explanatory notes. Each specimen in the collection will have appended the name of the medical officer by whom it was prepared. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. NOTE.-Medical Directors will furnish one copy of this circular to every medical officer in the department in which they are serving; and they will hereafter forward to this office with their consolidated monthly reports, all the monthly reports of the medical officers under their supervision. They will also immediately transmit all back monthly reports, and papers of every kind relating to the above subjects of medicine and surgery, which may have accumulated in their respective offices since the commencement of the rebellion. CIRCULAR NO. 4. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D.C., June 5, 1862. The Secretary of War having authorized, in certain cases, the employment of civilians as cooks and nurses for duty in General Hospitals (only), the following rules and instructions are published for the information of all concerned: REGULATONS FOR THE HOSPITAL CORPS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY. The men of the Hospital Corps will each receive $20.50 per month, besides clothing, rations, and medical attendance. They will be under military discipline, and subject only to the orders of the medical authorities, and will wear the undress uniform of a private soldier, with a green half-chevron on the left forearm. Their duties will be either nursing the sick and wounded of the army in hospitals, cooking, or any other duties with the sick at the discretion of the Medical Officers. They will be divided into squads of eleven, one of whom will be responsible for the efficiency of the rest. One squad will be allowed to every one hundred patients. At the usual roll-calls, the chief of the squad will answer for the rest to the Hospital Steward, who will thus learn the number of vacant beds in each ward, and all other particulars concerning the condition and wants of the hospital, which he will report to the Medical "Officer of the Day." The term of the service of the Hospital Corps will be according to the necessities of the service, or during good conduct. The amount of pay and clothing received by each nurse, with date, will be recorded on their contract, which will be as a descriptive list to go with the nurse. The senior Medical Officer in charge will make a monthly payroll of the Hospital Corps, similar to form 12, Medical Regulations, except the rank and designation, and transmit the same for payment to the nearest Medical Disbursing Officer. Surgeons in charge of General Hospitals, when so authorized, may make con racts with persons for such service according to the provisions set forth herein. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. NOTE.-It is hereby enjoined upon all Medical Officers that they shall not avail themselves of this special authority of the War Department without first receiving permission of the Surgeon-General to do so, on making a full statement of the facts in the case, and clearly setting forth the reasons why the permission should be granted, except in cases of immediate necessity and urgency, and then the Commanding Officer must approve. In such exceptional cases the facts will be promptly reported to the Surgeon-General with the necessary explanations, together with a request that permission be given to continue the employment if the necessity still exists. CIRCULAR NO. 5. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D.C., June 9, 1862. It is intended to prepare for publication the Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion. The medical portion of this work has been committed to Assistant Surgeon J. J. Woodward, United States Army, and the surgical part to Brigade-Surgeon John H. Brinton, United States Volunteers. All medical officers are therefore requested to cooperate in this undertaking by forwarding to this office such sanitary, topographical, medical, and surgical reports, details of cases, essays, and results of investigations and inquiries as may be of value for this work, for which full credit will be given in the forthcoming volumes. Authority has been given to both the above-named gentlemen to issue, from time to time, such circulars as may be necessary to elicit the desired facts, and the medical officers are desired to comply with the requests which may thus be made of them. It is scarcely necessary to remind the medical officers of the Regular and Volunteer services that through the means in question much may be done to advance the science which we all have so much at heart, and to establish landmarks which will serve to guide us in future. It is therefore confidently expected that no one will neglect this opportunity of advancing the honor of the service, the cause of humanity, and his own reputation. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. CIRCULAR NO. 6. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D.C., July 14, 1862. Medical Officers in charge of Military Hospitals in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and in the vicinity of those cities, will, immediately after the receipt of this order, make a special and careful examination of all convalescents under their charge, and cause all who are fit for duty to be returned at once to their regiments. Medical Directors will be held responsible for the prompt execution of this order in their respective distric's or departments. The Army of the Potomac requires the service of all its soldiers who are able to do duty. WILLLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. CIRCULAR NO. 7. Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, D.C., July 14, 1862. In order to give greater utility to the acts of Miss D. L. Dix as Superintendent of Women Nurses" in General Hospitals, and to make the employment of such nurses conform more closely 19 existing laws and orders of the War Department, the following announcement is made for the information and guidance of Medical Officers and of all concerned: Miss Dix has been entrusted by the War Department wi h the duty of selecting women nurses and assigning them to general or permanent Military Hospitals. Women nurses are not to be employed in such hospitals without her sanction and approval, except in cases of urgent need. Women nurses will be under the control and direction of the Medical Officer in charge of the hospital to which they are assigned, and may be discharged by him if incompetent, insubordinate, or otherwise unfit for their vocation. Miss Dix is charged with the diligent oversight of women nurses, and with the duty of ascertaining, by personal inspection, whether or not they are properly performing their duties. Medical Officers are enjoined to receive her suggestions and counsels with respect, and to carry them into effect if compatible with the hospital service. As it will be impossible for Miss Dix to supervise in person all the Military Hospitals, she is authorized to delegate her authority, as herein defined, to subordinate agents, not to exceed one for each ci y or military district. Women wishing employment as nurses must apply to Miss Dix, or to her authorized agents. The Army Regulations allow one nurse to every ten patients (beds) in a General Hospital. As it is the expressed will of the Government that a portion of those nurses shall be women, and as Congress has given to the Surgeon-General authority to decide in what numbers women shall be substituted for men, it is ordered that there shall be one woman nurse to two men nurses. Medical Officers are hereby required to organize their respective hospitals accordingly. Medical Officers requiring women nurses will apply to Miss Dix or to her authorized agent for the place where their hospitals are located. Sisters of Charity will be employed, as at present, under special instructions from this office. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, Surgeon-General, U. S. Army. CIRCULAR NO. 8. Washington, July 24, 1862. No candidate for service in the Women's Department for nursing in the Military Hospitals of the United States, will be received below the age of thirty-five years, nor above fifty. Only women of strong health, not subjects of chronic disease, nor liable to sudden illnesses, need apply. The duties of the station make large and continued demands on strength. Matronly persons of experience, good conduct, or superior education and serious disposition, will always have preference; habits of neatness, order, sobriety, and industry are prerequisites. All applicants must present certificates of qualification and good character from at least two persons of trust, testifying to morality, integrity, seriousness, and capacity for care of the sick. Obedience to rules of the service, and conformity to special regulations, will be required and enforced. Compensation, as regulated by Act of Congress, forty cents a |