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                      ( Circular No. 3. )




                      Washington City, D. C, January 30, 1863.
  I..In consequence of the great and improper latitude which many-
Surgeons have allowed themselves in  the administration of the Hos-
pital Fund, the following instructions are issued denning the articles
for which and  for which alone the hospital fund may be expended :
  The hospital fund may be expended for the purchase of—
  1st. Food, solid or fluid, to be used for the diet of the sick, and not
furnished by the Commissary Department or Medical  Department.
  2d. Articles to be used in either the preparation or  serving of the
food, embracing principally cooking utensils and table  furniture, and
not furnished  by the Quartermaster's Department or Medical Depart-
ment.
  3d. Gas, oil, and other  means of illumination, to be bought instead
of candles, which are part of the soldier's ration.
  Experiment has been carefully and thoroughly made in a number of
our best regulated hospitals, as to the.capacity of the hospital fund to
support a proper diet table for the sick.
  Reports from these hospitals are unanimous in the testimony that the
cost of supplying such a diet exceeds the value of the hospital ration,
and  hence all expenditures  for  objects  of less importance  than  a
liberal diet are acts of  injustice to the sick soldier.
  II..Upon  the  receipt of this circular, a return will be made to this
Office, by Surgeons in charge of hospitals, of all articles of a nature not
immediately perishable which have been purchased from  the hospital
fund, and which are now in use in the hospitals under their charge.
  This return will be made in a form similar to the returns of  hospital
furniture now required, and will be made hereafter quarterly,  upon the
last day of March, June, September, and December.
  Medical officers will be required to account strictly  to this Depart-
ment for all such articles as may be purchased from the hospital iund.
  The accompanying circular, received from the Commissaiy General
of Subsistence, is  furnished  for  the information and guidance  of
Medical officers.
                                      W.  A. HAMMOND,
                                               Surgeon General.