s, to say nothing of the crippling of the
service that sickness brings." In an article entitled "Special Sanitary
Instructions for the Guidance of Troops Serving in Tropical Countries,"
published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" for May,
Dr. R. S. Woodson described fully the adverse sanitary conditions
peculiar to Cuba, and called especial attention to the danger of
drinking impure water and sleeping on the ground. Finally, the highest
medical officers of our army, including the surgeon-general, the chief
surgeon of the Fifth Army-Corps, and Dr. John Guiteras, published
instructions and suggestions for the maintenance of the health of our
soldiers in the field, in which attention was again called to the danger
of drinking unboiled water and sleeping in wet clothing on the
ground.[19]

In spite of all these orders, instructions, and suggestions, and in
defiance of the advice and warnings of all competent authorities,
General Shafter's army sailed from Tampa without its reserve medical
supplies and ambulance corps, and, having landed on the Cuban coast,
marched into the interior without wall-tents, without hammocks, without
a change of clothing, and without a single utensil larger than a
coffee-cup in which to boil water.

The question naturally arises, Why? If everybody, without exception, who
knows the climate of Cuba warns you that your soldiers must not sleep on
the ground, in wet clothing, why not provide them with hammocks,
rain-sheets, and extra underwear? If your own surgeon-general and the
chief surgeon of your own corps advise you officially that the drinking
of unboiled water will almost certainly cause disease, why not supply
your men with camp-kettles? I can think of only three possible answers
to these questions. Either (1) the War Department did not furnish
General Shafter with these articles, or with adequate transportation for
them; or (2) General Shafter did not believe in microbes and the germ
theory of disease, and regarded the suggestions of medical and other
experts as foolish and nonsensical; or (3) the commanding general
expected to capture Santiago before his troops should be put _hors de
combat_ by disease, and did not care particularly what happened to them
afterward. If there be any other explanation of the officially admitted
facts, it does not at this moment occur to me.

Some of the defenders of the War Department and of General Shafter seek
to convey the idea, by impl