SANITARY  COMMISSION
             3STO.  13.
 ADDRESS OF '1 HE CENTRAL. FINANCE COMMITTEE.

   The  undersigned, associate members  of the Sanitary Com-
 mission lately appointed by Government to inquire into  and
 provide for  the wants of our volunteer regiments now in the
 field, respectfully  recommend this Commission and its most im-
 portant object to the prompt and liberal support of their fellow
 citizens.
   Great mortality by disease is an inevitable feature of every
 war.  It invariably exceeds at least four-fold that produced by
 all other causes.
   But our volunteer  regiments, made up in  a great degree of
 men and officers utterly without knowledge or experience as to
 the  remedies and precautions which  the case requires, are ex-
 posed to the greatest and most pressing danger from this source.
 The present defective state, of the camps and quarters generally
 as to ventilation, police, drainage and  other sanitary provisions,
 and  of a very large portion of the men in point of cleanliness,
 clothing and  shoes, the want of proper arrangements for fur-
 nishing well cooked food and wholesome water, furnish ground
 for the  most serious alarm.  Predictions are confidently made
 that (without prompt  and  energetic remedial measures) a very
 considerable proportion of our volunteer forces will fall victims
 to disease before the end of the present season.
  If these  predictions should be unhappily verified (and they
 come from sources  entitled to the highest respect) we  are in im-
minent danger of a disaster which could hardly be  exceeded,
in its effects on public credit  and on individual prosperity, by
defeat in a great battle.
  To meet this clanger (which can  be  met and fully remedied) 
the  Sanitary Commission has been appointed.  Its  members
serve gratuitously, but call on their fellow-citizens for means to
enable them to do their work.  Tiny decline applying to Con-
gress for funds, for reasons which we consider satisfactory.
  lliey propose,  among other things, to place an agent of intel-
ligence, activity, and scientific education, specially acquainted
with the laws of  hygiene, in  every camp or centre of military
operations, to remedy at once the defects and abuses that exist
in most of them.  If they can be furnished with  means to do
this within twenty days, they expect to save the nation at least
twenty thousand  lives.
  Members of the Commission are  already personally engaged
both at Cairo and Washington, in organizing a sanitary system
for the camps at  those points.
  The undersigned earnestly urge on the public the importance
of sustaining the  Commission by prompt and liberal action.
  Every day is of the utmost importance, and every dollar ap-
plied  to the protection of life at this time will save the commu-
nity from much  larger expenditure, or from  humiliation  and
defeat at no distant period.
  On behalf of the Committee.
                JOHN A.  STEVENS, Chairman pro tern.
  Chas. E. Strong, Secretary.
      E. II. McCurdy,        Joseph Lawrence,
      Wm. F. Cary,           J.  D. Jones,
      Peter Cooper,          T.  Tileston,
      Morris Ketchum,        John J.  Cisco,
      Samuel B. Euggles,     John E. Willtams,
      J. P. Giraud Foster,   F.  S.  Winston,
      Same.  D.  Babcock,      U. Hendricks-,
       Wm.  At. Brady,         Henry Chauncey, Jr.,
      IT. D. Aldrich,          Eobt. B. Minturn,
      George Opdyke,        Jas.  W. Beekman,
                    Jonathan Sturges.
  I^ir1 Contributions can be sent to either of the above, or to
George T. Strong, Treasurer. No. 6S Wall street, New York.