The camp is on the shore in a limited plateau at the base of the mountain rising behind the little mining village.  The condition of the wounded men furnished satisfactory proof that good work had been done here, as well as at the front.  On my arrival many of the wounded had already been placed on board a transport ship, but more than 400 remained in the general hospital.

On the whole the treatment to which the wounded were subjected was characterized by conservatism.  Only a very small number of primary amputations were performed.  Bullets that were found lodged in the body were allowed to remain unmolested unless they could be removed readily and without additional risk.  A number of cases of penetrating wounds of the abdomen and chest were doing well without operative interference.  Penetrating gunshot wounds of the skull were treated by enlarging the wound of entrance, removal of detached fragments of bone and drainage.  Several cases in which a bullet passed through the skull, injuring only the surface of the brain, were doing well.  With a few exceptions wounds of the large joints were on a fine way to recovery under the most conservative treatment.

Bullet wounds rapidly heal.

A study of the immense material collected at the station convinced the surgeons that the explosive effect of the small-caliber bullet has been greatly overestimated.  The subsequent employment of the X ray in many of these cases will undoubtedly confirm the results of these observations.  The battle at Santiago resulted in 157 killed and over 1,300 wounded.  Nearly all wounds of the soft parts heal rapidly—­suppuration in these cases was the exception, primary healing the rule.

The day after my arrival I went to the front, about ten miles from Siboney.  A colored orderly was my only companion.  He rode at a respectful distance to the rear.  The whole distance the road was crowded with mule teams, soldiers and refugees.  The latter made a seething mass of humanity from start to finish.  At a low estimate I must have passed on that day 2,000 souls, including men, women and children and naked infants.

The day was hot and the suffering of the fleeing inhabitants of Santiago, the besieged city, and adjacent villages, can be better imagined than described.  Indian fashion, the women walked, while some of the men enjoyed the pleasure of a mule or donkey ride.  Most of them were barefoot and dressed in rags; children and infants naked; dudes with high collars, white neckties and straw hats were few and far between.  An occasional old umbrella and a well-worn recently washed white dress marked the ladies of distinction.  Their earthly possessions usually consisted of a small bundle carried on the head of the women or a wornout basket loaded with mangoes or cocoanuts.  The color of the skin of the passing crowd presented many tints from white to jet black.  The women were noted for their ugliness, the men for their eagerness to get beyond the reach of guns.