A room with necessary conveniences will be provided in the City of Washington for the use of the Commission, and the members will meet when and at such places as may be convenient to them for consultation, and for the determination of such questions as may come properly before the Commission.

In the progress of its inquiries, the Commission will correspond freely with the Department and with the Medical Bureau, and will communicate to each, from time to time, such observations and results as it may deem expedient and important.

The Commission will exist until the Secretary of War shall otherwise direct, unless sooner dissolved by its own action.

I approve the above.

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

June 13, 1861.

A. LINCOLN.

Plan of Organization for "The Commission of Inquiry and Advice in Respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United States Forces."

The Commission naturally divides itself into two branches, one of Inquiry, the other of Advice, to be represented by two principal Committees, into which the Commission should divide.

I. Inquiry. This branch of the Commission would again naturally subdivide itself into three stems, inquiring successively in respect of the condition and wants of the troops:

1st. What must be the condition and want of troops gathered together in such masses, so suddenly, and with such inexperience?

2d. What is their condition? - a question to be settled only by direct. and positive observation and testimony.

3d. What ought to be their condition, and how would Sanitary Science bring them up to the standard of the highest attainable security and efficiency?

SUB-COMMITTEES OF BRANCH OF INQUIRY.

A. Under the first Committee's care would come the suggestion of such immediate aid, and such obvious recommendations as an intelligent foresight and an ordinary acquaintance with received principles of sanitary science would enable the Board at once to urge upon the public authorities.

B. The second Sub-Committee would have in charge, directly or through agents, the actual exploration of recruiting posts, transports, camps, quarters, tents, forts, hospitals; and consultation with officersColonels, Captains, Surgeons, and Chaplains - at their posts, to collect from them needful testimony as to the condition and wants of the troops.

C. The Third Sub-Committee would investigate, theoretically and practically, all questions of dirt, cooking, and cooks; of clothing, foot, head, and body gear; of quarters, tents, booths, huts; of hospitals, field service, nurses and surgical dresses; of climate and its effects, malaria, and camp and hospital diseases and contagions; of ventilation, natural and artificial; of vaccination; antiscorbutics; disinfectants; of sinks, drains, camp sites, and cleanliness in general; of best methods of economizing and preparing rations, or changing or exchanging them. All these questions to be treated from the highest scientific ground, with the newest light of physiology, chemistry, and medicine, and the latest teachings of experience in the great continental wars.

Probably these Committees of Inquiry could convert to their use, without fee or reward, all our medical and scientific men now in the army, or elsewhere, especially by sending an efficient agent about among the regiments to establish active correspondence with surgeons, chaplains, and others, as well as by a public advertisement and call for such help and information.

II. Advice. This branch of the Commission would subdivide itself into three stems, represented by three Sub-Committees. The general object of this branch would be to get the opinions and conclusions of the Commission approved by the Medical Bureau, ordered by the War Department, carried out by the officers and men, and encouraged, aided, and supported by the benevolence of the public at large, and by the State governments. It would subdivide itself naturally into three parts.

1. A Sub-Committee, in direct relation with the Government, the Medical Bureau, and the War Department; having for its object the communication of the counsels of the Commission, and the procuring of their approval and ordering by the U. S. Government.

2. A Sub-Committee in direct relation with the army officers, medical men, the camps and hospitals, whose duty it should be to look after the actual carrying out of the orders of the War Department and the Medical Bureau, and make sure, by inspection, urgency, and explanation, by influence, and all proper methods, of their actual accomplishment.

3. A Sub-Committee in direct relation with the State governments, and with the public associations of benevolence. First, to secure uniformity of plans, and then proportion and harmony of action; and finally, abundance of supplies in moneys and goods, for such extra purposes as the laws do not and can not provide for.

SUB-COMMITTEES OF BRANCH OF ADVICE.

D. The Sub-Committee in direct relation with the Government, would immediately urge the most obvious measures, favored by the Commission on the War Department, and secure their emphatic reiteration of orders. now neglected. It would establish confidential relations with the Medical Bureau. A secretary, hereafter to be named, would be the head and hand of this Sub-Committee always near the Government, and always urging the wishes and aims of the Commission upon its attention.

E. This Sub-Committee, in direct relation with the army officers, medical men, the camps, forts, and hospitals, would have it for its duty to explain and enforce upon inexperienced, careless, or ignorant officials, the regulations of a sanitary kind ordered by the Department of War and the Medical Bureau; of complaining to the Department of disobedience, sloth, or defect, and of seeing to the general carrying out of the objects of the Commission in their practical details.

F. This Sub-Committee, in direct relation with State authorities and benevolent associations, would have for its duties to look after three chief objects.

First: How far the difficulties in the sanitary condition and prospects of the troops are due to original defects in the laws of the States or the inspection usages, or in the manner in which officers, military or medical, have been appointed in the several States, with a view to the adoption of a general system, by which the State laws may all be assimilated to the United States regulations.

This could probably only be brought about by calling a convention of delegates from the several loyal States, to agree upon some uniform system; or, that failing, by agreeing upon a model State arrangement, and sending a suitable agent to the Governors and Legislatures, with a prayer for harmonious action and cooperation.

Second: To call in New York a convention of delegates from all the benevolent associations throughout the country, to agree upon a plan of common action in respect of supplies, depots, and methods of feeding the

extra demands of the Medical Bureau or Commissariat, without embarrassment to the usual machinery. This, too, might, if a convention were deemed impossible, be effected by sending about an agent of special adaptation. Thus the organizing, methodizing, and reducing to serviceableness the vague, disproportioned, and haphazard benevolence of the public, might be successfully accomplished.

Third: To look after the pecuniary ways and means necessary for accomplishing the various objects of the Commission, through solicitation of donations, either from State treasuries or private beneficence. The treasurer might be at the head of this Special Committee.

OFFICERS.

If these general suggestions be adopted, the officers of the Commission might properly be a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. President. His duties would be to call and preside over all meetings of the Commission, and give unity, method, and practical success to its counsels.

The Vice-President would perform the President's duties in his absence.

The Secretary should be a gentleman of special competency, charged with the chief executive duties of the Commission, in constant correspondence with its President; be resident at Washington, and admitted to confidential intimacy with the Medical Bureau and the War Department. Under him such agents as could safely be trusted with the duties of inspection and advice in camps, hospitals, fortresses, etc., should work, receiving instructions from, and reporting to him. He would be immediately in connection with the Committees A and B of the Branch of Inquiry, and of Committees D and E of the Branch of Advice.

The Treasurer would hold and disburse, as ordered by the Commission, the funds of the body. These funds would be derived from such sources as the Commission, when its objects were known, might find open or make available. Donations, voluntary and solicited; contributions from patriotic and benevolent associations, or State treasuries, would be the natural supply of the cost of sustaining a commission whose members would give their time, experience, and labor to a cause of the most obvious and pressing utility, and the most radical charity and wide humanity; who, while unwilling to depend on the General Government for even their incidental expenses, could not perform their duties without some moderate sum in hand to facilitate their movements.

The publication of the final report of the Commission could be arranged by subscription or private enterprise.

As the scheme of this Commission may appear impracticable from apprehended jealousies, either on the part of the Medical Bureau or the War Department, it may be proper to state, that the Medical Bureau itself asked for the appointment of the Commission, and that no ill-feeling exists or will exist between the Commission and the War Department, or the Government. The Commission grows out of no charges of negligence or incompetency in the War Department or the Medical Bureau. The sudden increase of volunteer forces has thrown unusual duties upon them. The Commission is chiefly concerned with the volunteers, and one of its highest ambitions is to bring the volunteers up to the regulars in respect of sanitary regulations and customs. To aid the Medical Bureau, without displacing it, or in any manner infringing upon its rights and duties, is the object of the Commission. The embarrassments anticipated from etiquette or official jealousy, have all been overcome in advance, by a frank and cordial understanding, met with large and generous feelings by the Medical Bureau and the Department of War.

HENRY W. BELLOWS, President.

PROF. A. D. BACHE, Vice-President.
ELISHA HARRIS, M. D., Corresp. Sect'y.

GEORGE W. CULLUM, U. S. Army.
ALEXANDER E. SHIRAS, U. S. Army.
ROBERT C. WOOD, M. D., U. S. Army.

WILLIAM H. VAN BUREN, M. D.
WOLCOTT GIBBS, M. D.

SAMUEL G. HOWE, M. D.

CORNELIUS R. AGNEW, M. D.

J. S. NEWBERRY, M. D.

GEORGE T. STRONG, Treasurer.

WASHINGTON, June 13, 1861.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, June 13, 1861.

I hereby approve of the plan of organization proposed by the Sanitary Commission, as above given; and all persons in the employ of the United States Government are directed and enjoined to respect and further the inquiries and objects of this Commission, to the utmost of their ability. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.