Defence of Brig. Gen'l Wm. A. Hammond, Surgeon General, U.S. Army.
- William Alexander Hammond
- Date:
- [1864?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Defence of Brig. Gen'l Wm. A. Hammond, Surgeon General, U.S. Army. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![Wilcox vs. Jackson, 13 Pet., 498: U. S. vs. Eliason, 16 Pet., 291 : Williams vs. U. S., 1 How., 614, are all cases directly in point, and equally so is that of Freeman vs. U. S., 3 How., 556. We have then the law creating the office, and express au- thority given to the President to define the powers and du- ties of the Surgeon General. The earliest regulations on this subject which are now ex- tant are those of Sept. 1818, issued By order (signed) D. Parker, Adj. & Ins. G-enl., [which were added to in March 1819,] and an original copy of both of which is ex- hibited to the Court with this paper. By the first paragraph the Surgeon General is made the director and immediate accounting officer of the Medical Department. He shall issue all orders, and instructions re- lating to the professional duties of the officers of the Medi- cal Staff; and call for and receive such reports and returns from them as may be requisite for the performance of his several duties. The Apothecary General was, with his assistant, empow- ered to purchase (according to an estimate therein pro- vided for) all medicines, &c., required for the 'public service of the army—(p. 4.) This was the germ of the medical purveyorship. Thus the law continued to 1832, when new regulations signed. By order of Maj. Genl. Macomb, R. Jones, Adjt. Genl., dated 13th Aug., were promulgated under authority of the War Department. The first paragraph of these is almost totidem verbis, that of the regulations of 1818. There were then in the service Medical Directors who were charged with almost the identical services by the act of 16th April, 1862, imposed on the Medical Inspectors, and they had to report, by the 2d paragraph, to the Surgeon General. The 13th paragraph, p. 5, contains the same provision as to medical supplies to be purchased by the Apothecary, as in the pre- vious regulations. The next regulations were issued in 1840 by J. P. Poin- sett, Secretary of War. The first paragraph is as follows: The Surgeon General](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21126239_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
