May 17th, 1863. On the 37th of July
following, he was detached to the 1st Battalion
Invalid Corps, and is now on duty at Jamaica,
Long Island, New York." Each state has its
own Directory, and there are two hundred thousand
names now on the books of Washington
alone. Mr. Bowne, the Chief of the Directory
Bureau, reporting at the end of last year upon
nine thousand two hundred and three answers
to anxious questions, thus tells of the sort of
work they represent. "Of the many scenes
witnessed is. the bureau, I can only mention a
few, without attempting a description. A
mother has not heard anything of her son since
the last battle; she hopes he is safe, but would
like to he assured—there is no escape—she must
be told that he has fallen upon the 'Federal
altar;' an agony of tears bursts forth which seems
as if it would never cease; another, less exciteable,
does not tire of telling ' how good a boy
he was.' 'No mother had such a son as he,'
sobs a third. A father presents himself—a
strong man and yet young in years—to receive
the same announcement, and sinks with audible
grief into a chair; another, with pale face and
tremulous voice, anxious to know, yet dreading
to hear, is told that his boy is in the hospital a
short distance off; he grasps the hand with
both of his, while tears run down his check,
and without uttering another word he leaves the
room. ' It is very hard, my friend,' was said to
one overcome with grief, 'but you are not
alone.' ' I know it, sir,' was the reply, ' but he
was the only one I had.' An intelligent looking
woman says, with almost breathless voice, ' I
want to find my husband; I have not heard
from him for several months. I have written to
the officers of his regiment, but do not get any
reply; can you tell me where he is?' 'Will
you please to give me his name and the number
of his regiment?' She does that, and is told,
'You will find him at Lincoln Hospital; the
city cars pass near the building, and the
conductor will point it out to you.' A momentary
shade of incredulity is followed by a look of
grateful emotion, and in an instant she is in the
street. Thus, says the chief of the bureau,
"the varied scene goes on. One inquirer leaves
the room grateful, buoyant, and happy, to be
followed by another, equally grateful, who will
' tread softly ' the remainder of his days, for the
' light of his dwelling has gone out.' As each
departs, another figure is added to the list of
'inquiries and answers,' and the seemingly
monotonous work of the bureau is resumed."

Among other good works of the Sanitary
Commission, is the invention and use of a
railway ambulance or carriage for the wounded.
A dozen or more of such ambulances are in
constant use upon every railway communicating
with armies or hospitals. They are carefully
ventilated carriages, fitted with elastic beds and
invalid chairs, shaded lights, speaking tubes for
communication between nurses and surgeons,
dispensary stores of warm clothing, concentrated
food, water supply and a kitchen, six feet by
three, with water tank, wash basin, sink,
cupboards for stores and dishes, and two large
lamps heating copper boilers, for the quick and
careful preparation of soup, tea, and so forth.
These carriages are specially protected by
springs to their buffers, against jars in stopping
and starting; and by nine such carriages a
surgeon in charge of them reports that he lias
removed more than twenty thousand patients, with
the loss only of one man. That man's case was
hopeless, and he was removed, against medical
advice, in deference to his own earnest desire to
"die at home." Another contrivance is of
"refrigerating cars," for the daily transit to
Washington of supplies of fresh provisions from the
markets of Philadelphia, where the whole state
is a garden.

Many interesting facts may be told in illustration
of the great energy shown under the direction
of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, in
protecting the large Federal armies against scurvy.
It was a Medical Inspector, Lieutenant-Colonel
Frank H. Hamilton, who, in reporting to the
Medical Bureau from the army in Tennessee,
expressed the belief, now adopted as an axiom,
that " one barrel of potatoes per annum is to the
government equal to one man." As the markets
alone could not supply the necessary quantity
of vegetables, it was necessary to appeal to the
private farmers, and urge every one who had a
patch of garden, to grow in it a few vegetables
for the army. A cry was raised of "Potatoes and
onions for the whole army." "Onion Leagues,"
it was said, should vie with " Union Leagues,"
in number and zeal of membership. M. Baudens,
Medical Inspector of the French army in the
Crimea, said, in one of his reports, that "a
hundred thousand francs spent in fresh vegetables,
is a saving of five hundred thousand francs in
the expense of sending the sick to hospitals;"
thus a shilling's-worth of potatoes, onions, or
cabbage, saves five shillings'-worth of sickness.
The potatoes and onions, as less perishable than
the cabbage, are more convenient for transport
to distant armies.

It was Doctor H. A. Warriner who, writing
from Vicksburg, pointed to a supply of fresh
vegetables that had, by saving the strength of
an army, "modified history." Wherever an
army has been stationed long enough under
conditions that allowed such an arrangement, the
counsels of the Sanitary Commission lead to
the establishment of vegetable gardens near the
camp. Thus eighty acres of fertile land were
turned into vegetable gardens—hospital gardens
—in the neighbourhood of Murfreesboro' and
Nashville. The Commission furnished seeds and
garden tools, and many thousands of plants
were bought in Louisville and Cincinnati. In
buying for the army, when commissaries have
found the markets exhausted, the Sanitary
Commission has set its machinery to work, and
drawn through its ramifications local gifts or
sales of vegetables by the peck, bushel, or barrel,
into a broad stream of supply flowing in on its
own head-quarters for redistribution to the
troops. Ot the self-devotion with which the
medical officers apply such stores to their right