APPENDIX HAN ACT TO REGULATE THEMEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT,2 MARCH 1799
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and Houseof Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.That in the medical establishment of the United States there shall be thefollowing officers: A physician-general, who shall becharged with the superintendence and direction of all military hospitals,and, generally, of all medical and chirurgical practice orservice concerning the army and navy of the United States, and of all personswho shall be employed in and about the same, incamps, garrisons, and hospitals. An apothecary-general, and one or moredeputies, who shall be charged with the safe keepingand delivery of all medicines, instruments, dressings, and other articles,for the use of the hospital and army. A purveyor, whoshall be charged with providing medicines, stores, and whatsoever elsemay be necessary in relation to the said practice orservice. A competent number of hospital surgeons, who shall be liable toserve in the field, and who shall have the immediatecharge and direction of such military hospitals as may be committed totheir care, respectively. A suitable number of hospitalmates, who are to observe the directions of the hospital surgeons, andshall diligently perform all reasonable duties required ofthem for the recovery of the sick and wounded.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That each militaryhospital shall have a steward, with a competent number of nurses, andother attendants; which steward shall be charged with the procuring ofsuch supplies as may not otherwise be furnished, andwith the safe keeping and issuing of all supplies.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the saidphysician-general, hospital-surgeons, purveyor, and apothecary orapothecaries, deputy or deputies, shall be appointed as other officersof the United States; and the said mates and stewardsshall be appointed by the authority, and at the direction, of the saidphysician general, subject to the eventual approbation andcontrol of the President of the United States, and shall be removable bythe authority of the said physician-general; and that thesurgeon of each hospital shall appoint, employ and fix the compensationsof, the nurses and other attendants of such hospital,subject to the control of the said physician-general, or the hospital surgeon,of senior appointment, with a separate army, or in a separate district.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That as oftenas the regimental sick will not suffer by the employing of regimental surgeonsormates
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in the temporary or other hospitals of the UnitedStates, the physician-general, or the hospital surgeon, of senior appointment,with a separate army, or in a separate district, with the consent of thegeneral and commander-in-chief, or the officercommanding a separate army, may require the attendance of such surgeons,or surgeon's mates, as in his opinion, can be withsafety so withdrawn from their regiments.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shallbe the duty of the physician-general, with two or more hospital surgeons,toframe a system of directions relative to the description of patients tobe admitted into the hospitals; to the means of promotingcleanliness in the hospitals; to the prevention of idleness, skulking,and gambling, in the hospitals; to the prevention of the spread of infectiousdistempers in the camps and hospitals, and the government of nurses, andall others charged with the care of the sick in camps or hospitals, subject,in the first instance, to the approbation and revision of the commander-in-chief,thecommander of a separate army, or in a separate district, as the case maybe, and, eventually, to the approbation and control ofthe President of the United States: Provided always, That the said directions,having received the sanction of thecommander-in-chief, or the commander of a separate army, shall be operative,and remain in full force, unless altered orannulled by the President of the United States.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the compensationsof the said several officers shall be as follows: of thephysician-general, one hundred dollars pay per month, and fifty dollarsper month, which shall be in full compensation forforage, rations, and travelling expenses: of the purveyor, one hundreddollars pay per month, in full compensation for hisservices, and all expenses: of the apothecary general, eighty dollars payper month, and thirty dollars per month, in fullcompensation for forage, rations, and all expenses: of each of his deputies,fifty dollars pay per month, and sixteen dollars permonth, in full compensation for forage, rations and all expenses: of eachhospital surgeon, eighty dollars pay per month, andforty dollars per month, in full compensation for forage, rations, andall expenses: of each mate, thirty dollars pay per month,and twenty dollars per month, in full compensation for forage, rations,and all expenses: of each steward, twenty-five dollarspay per month, and eight dollars per month, in full compensation for forage,rations, and all expenses: Provided, That none ofthe officers aforesaid shall be entitled to any part of the pay or emolumentsaforesaid, until they shall respectively, be called intoactual service.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That, for theaccommodation of the sick of the army and navy of the United States, thephysician-general, and hospital surgeon of senior appointment, with theapprobation of the general commanding the army within the district wherehe shall be, shall have power to provide temporary hospitals; and the physician-general,with the approbation of the President of the United States, shall havepower to provide and establish permanent hospitals.
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That all thesaid officers, and others, shall, as touching their several offices andduties, beliable to the rules and regulations for the government and discipline ofthe army and shall be bound to obey, in conformity withlaw and the usages and customs of armies, the orders and directions ofthe chief military officers of the respective armies, andwithin the respective districts in which they shall respectively serveand be.
Sec. 9. And be it further enacted. That the physician-generalor, in his absence, the senior medical officer, with the approbationof the commander-in-chief, or commanding officer of a separate army, be,and hereby is, authorized and empowered, as oftenas may be judged necessary, to call a medical board, which shall consistof the three senior medical officers, then present,whose duty it shall be to examine all candidates for employment or promotionin the hospital department, and certify to thesecretary of war the qualifications of each. (Approved, March 2, 1799.)
SOURCE: Trueman Cross, MilitaryLaws of the United States; to Which is Prefixed the Constitution of theUnited States (Washington: Edward de Krafft, 1825), pp. 96-99.
