APPENDIX ELAW OF 6 FEBRUARY 1778
Congress took into consideration the reportof the committee to whom the letters from Dr. Shippen, Dr. Rush, and otherswere committed; and thereupon came to the following resolutions:
For the better regulating the hospitals of theUnited States,
Resolved, That there be a deputy directorgeneral for the hospitals between Hudson and Potomack rivers; and thatthesuperintending care of the director general be extended equally over thehospitals in every district, and that he be excused fromthe duty of providing supplies, when the deputy director general shallbe ready to enter upon the office:
That the several officers of the hospitals shallcease to exercise such of their former powers as are herein assigned tootherofficers thereof:
That in the absence of the director general fromany district, the physician general and surgeon general shall hereafterdeterminethe number of hospitals to be provided by the deputy director general forthe sick and wounded, and shall superintend andcontrol the affairs of such hospitals:
That the director general shall consult with thephysician general and surgeon general in each district, about the suppliesnecessary for the hospitals, and shall give orders in writing to the deputydirector general thereof to provide the same; and, inthe absence of the director general, the physician general and surgeongeneral shall issue such orders:
That each deputy director general shall appointone or more of the assistant deputy directors, under him, to the sole businessofproviding beds, furniture, utensils, hospital cloathing, and such likearticles; and shall appoint one or more to provide medicines,instruments, dressings, herbs, and necessaries of a similar kind:
That the director general shall frequently visitthe hospitals in each district, and see that the regulations are carriedinto effect;shall examine into the number and qualifications of the hospital officers,report to Congress any abuses that may have takenplace, and discharge the supernumerary officers, if there be
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any, that all unnecessary expence may be savedto the public; and when the director general is in any particular district,thephysician general and surgeon general in that district shall not appointany officers without his consent:
That, on the settlement of hospital accounts,the officers entrusted with public money shall produce vouchers to provetheexpenditure, and receipts from the proper officers of the hospitals, specifyingthe delivery of the stores and other articlespurchased; and the apothecaries, mates, stewards, matrons, and other officers,receiving such stores and other articles, shall beaccountable for the same, and shall produce vouchers for the delivery thereoffrom such officers, and according to such formsas the physicians general and surgeons general have directed, or shall,from time to time, direct; which forms and directions thephysicians and surgeons general shall report to the Board of Treasury:
That the director general, or, in his absencefrom the district, the physician general, and surgeon general, shall appointa wardmaster for each hospital, to receive the arms, accoutrements and cloathingof each soldier admitted therein, keeping entries of,and giving receipts for such articles, which, on the recovery of the soldier,shall be returned to him, or, in case of his death, thearms and accoutrements shall be delivered to the commissary or deputy commissaryof military stores, and receipts be takenfor the same; and the ward master shall receive and be accountable forthe hospital cloathing; and perform such other servicesas the physician general or the surgeon general shall direct:
That the physicians general and surgeons generalshall hereafter make no returns to the deputy directors general, but thereturnsshall be made by the said officers respectively to the director general,who shall carefully transmit copies of each with hismonthly return to Congress, and suspend such of the officers aforesaidas neglect this or any other part of their duty, and shallreport their names to Congress:
That the director and deputy directors generalforthwith prepare their accounts, and adjust them with the commissionersofclaims, at the Board of Treasury.
That four dollars a day, and the former allowanceof rations, be hereafter allowed to each assistant deputy director andthecommissary of the hospitals in each district; and one dollar a day, andtwo rations, to each ward master:
Resolved, That Dr. Potts be called fromthe northern district, and appointed to act as deputy director generalin the middledistrict.
Resolved, That the eldest assistant deputydirector in the northern district shall execute the office of the deputydirector generalin the said district, until the further orders of Congress:
That the salaries of the hospital officers anddebts contracted for the hospitals of the middle district to the time ofDr. Potts'sentering upon the office of deputy director general therein, shall be adjustedand paid by the director general, who shall deliverall the public stores in his possession to the deputy director generalor his order, taking duplicate receipts for the same, andtransmitting one of each to the Board of Treasury; and the same rule shallbe observed by Dr. Potts with respect to the salariesand debts of the hospitals of the northern district, and the public storesthereof, which are to be delivered to his successor inoffice in that district.
SOURCE: Ford, Journals of theContinental Congress, 10: 128-31.
