CIRCULAR,

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, December 18, 1902.

No. 61.

By direction of the Secretary of War, the following decision has been made and is published to the Army for the information and guidance of all concerned:

ALLOWANCES OF FORAGE OF CONTRACT AND CONTRACT DENTAL SURGEONS. —There is no authority of law or regulation for the sale or issue of forage by the Quartermaster's Department for feeding the private horses of a contract surgeon or a contract dental surgeon.-[Decision Sec. War, Dec. 12, 1902— 462486 A. G. 0.] BY COMMAND OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL MILES:

W. P. HALL, Acting Adjutant General.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 62.

Washington, December 24, 1902. By direction of the Secretary of War, the following memorandum, prepared by the Surgeon General of the Army, upon the subject of typhoid fever contagion and the means of preventing it is published to the Army for the information and guidance of all concerned:

PERSONAL HYGIENE FOR THE PREVENTION OF TYPHOID FEVER IN CAMPS. –Typhoid fever is a very common disease in the United States and is particularly liable to spread among soldiers in camp and garrison because of the intimate associa. tion of men gathered together in barracks and tents. It is conveyed by the fecal and urinary discharges of persons suffering from the disease.

It often happens that a soldier suffering from typhoid fever remains on duty for several days before he seeks relief at the hospital. Furthermore, very mild cases occur which are never treated as such.

The disease is not contagious in the sense that the mere presence of a case determines contagion, as in smallpox or measles, but particles of human excrement containing the germ of the disease may in many ways be transferred from the sick to the well and cause typhoid fever. In this sense it is contagious.

That an infected water supply is a common cause of the disease is well known but it is likely that in camp life a greater number of cases occur from direct contagion, man to man, than from infected drinking water. It is not probable that several hundred men can be assembled in a camp without at least one case of typhoid fever being introduced from outside and this case may not be recognized until infection of others has taken place. Therefore, the immediate destruction or disinfection of the discharges of all persons in camps without sewers is an imperative necessity.

The fever may be spread by flies from infected excrement settling on articles of food in company kitchens and in other ways; also, by dust containing dried particles of infected matter.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 63.

Washington, December 29, 1902. By direction of the Secretary of War, the following decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury is published to the Army for the information and guidance of all concerned: Continuous service pay. An application for reenlistment

made within three months does not entitle soldier to con. tinuous-service pay. The benefit provided in section 1284, Revised Statutes, amended by the act of August 1, 1894 (28 Stat., 216), can be obtained only by actual reenlistment of the soldier before the expiration of the prescribed three months.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY,

Washington, November 26, 1902. Leon C. Baker appealed November 28, 1902, from the action of the Auditor for the War Department in settlement No. 384218, dated June 3, 1902.

He claimed pay and allowances, and pay for continuous service as private of Troop C, 7th U. S. Cavalry.

The Auditor disallowed the claim as follows:

As he did not actually reenlist until August 14, 1899, he is not entitled to pay and allowances from August 1 to 13, 1899. Not having reenlisted within three months from date of discharge he is not entitled to continuousservice pay.

It appears from the records as furnished by the War Department that the claimant was first enlisted July 8, 1895, for three years, was assigned to Troop C, 7th U. S. Cavalry, and was discharged July 7, 1898, by reason of expiration of term of service, a private. He reenlisted July 11, 1898, was assigned to Battery A, 3d U. S. Artillery, and was discharged May 1, 1899, under the provisions of General Orders, No. 40, of 1898, a private. He again reenlisted August 14, 1899, for three years, was assigned to Troop C, 7th U. S. Cavalry, and was discharged according to his own statement August 1, 1902.

The claim is particularly made for pay from August 1 to 13, 1899, and for continuous-service pay under section 1284, Revised Statutes, under the enlistment of August 14, 1899.

The Adjutant General, U. S. Army, reported May 27, 1902, as follows:

The soldier referred to herein, when discharged May 1, 1899, in camp at Circle City on the Yukon River, Alaska, was not furnished a discharge certificate, there being no blank forms on file with the battery at that time and he did not receive the official certificate of discharge for some time afterward. On July 15, 1899, within three months after his discharge, he applied to Captain Edgar S. Walker, 8th Infantry, at St. Michael, Alaska, to reenlist for his former battery, and was told hy Captain Walker that as he had no discharge certiticate he could not reenlist him, and that he would have to wait until the opening of pavigation and the battery came