Now, it appears to me, is the time for increasing the amount of the pension, and for making it proportionate to the rank of the officer.

The great war that has maintained the integrity of the nation is over, it is hoped and believed, forever, and, therefore, it is possible to ascertain the amount required to provide properly for the fainilies of those who, in their manly efforts to preserve the government from destruction, lost their own lives, and left their wives and children without any other protector than the republic.

No fear need now be felt that the amount needed will be increased. On the contrary day by day, it will be diminished. There is also a still stronger reason why this should be done at once. At the time of the enactment referred to there existed no pension fund, and the expenditure was a burden on the publie treasury. Now, however, it is otherwise. The navy, during the war, won for itself a pension fund of $11,000,000, the annual interest of which will amount, at the present rates, to $660,000 in gold. Is it not eminently proper that the wives and offspring of the bold men, whose prowess accumulated this noble fund, should at least enjoy a portion of its profits?

The whole amount of pensions paid out during the last year did not exceed $250,000. It is manifest, therefore, that a proper increase in the annual pensions allowed to the families of officers, with due regard to the rank of the deceased, may be made without absorbing the whole of the interest on the pres ent pension fund, and I would, therefore, strongly urge that the subject be presented to the early attention of Congress.

By an act of Congress of July 4, 1864, "it is provided that all persons now entitled to a less pension, who shall have lost both feet in the military service, shall be entitled to a pension of $20 per month; and those who, under the same conditions, have lost both hands, shall be entitled to $25 per month."

As this law is construed in accordance with its phraseology, it dooms to painful inequality those persons in the navy who have suffered equal loss, and receive, under the present naval pension bill, but eight or ten dollars per month.

It cannot be supposed that this distinction was intended, and it is presumed that it requires but a notice of the fact to secure for the sailor the same reward as is bestowed on the soldier.

MEDICAL CORPS OF THE NAVY

It would be a source of the deepest gratification to this bureau to know that the medical corps of the navy offers sufficient inducements to attract the beet talent to its ranks, and to feel that those ranks would always be filled. I am reluctantly, however, compelled to say that in my judgment there is no vocation above the humblest laborer that does not at the present time offer greater inducements to the youthful aspirant, and moreover to express the earnest conviction that, if Congress does not, by apt legislation, increase the compensation and elevate the position of the medical officer, the corps which has so recently, during the rebellion, rendered such eminently valuable and efficient service, may soon consist, with but few exceptions, of those who are either too old for active service, or too young to be intrusted with important duties.

My able predecessor has demonstrated that in point of position and relative rank there is scarcely a power on the face of the earth in whose navy the medical officer is not treated with more consideration, and whose position and rank are not superior to that held by him in this country. The importance of his duties, the years of anxious study required to make him an honorable member of his profession, his previous education, the clear, intelligent, and prompt judgment that he should possess, have impressed other nations with the necessity of rewarding such talents and acquirements with at least a corresponding position in the service. But this subject has been so fully and ably brought to the consideration of the honorable Secretary of the Navy by my

immediate predecessor, that I deem it unnecessary to do more than refer to his reports of 1863 and 1864 on that branch of the subject. There is, however, another branch demanding the immediate and most earnest attention of Congress.

In the present state of affairs in this country, with the deranged condition of the currency and the enormous prices of food and clothing, the medical officer cannot subsist on the pay now allowed him by law. The consequence is, that the corps is rapidly diminishing in numbers. The price is not sufficient to induce the medical talent of the country to give up the actual or anticipated emoluments of private practice, and undertake the perilous duties of a naval medical officer, with but little position and less pay, and at the same time subject himself to the dangers of the sea and to the hazards of noxious climates. The mechanic is better paid, and a clerk of skill and reputation can earn double the amount of an assistant surgeon's salary.

What is there, then, to prevent the corps from gradually dwindling into such small proportions that we shall be compelled to take into the service any who may apply, without requiring of them any previous examination, or expecting in them any but the most ordinary qualifications? The consequences will be felt in the future condition of the corps itself, in the increased mortality on shipboard, and at naval hospitals, and, in the event of a war, in the want of the most efficient elements of that "problem of sanitary science." Then, it is true, promotion and pay will be freely offered, but it will be impossible at once to build up a medical corps, and all the experience and advantage that we might have gained will be lost to us.

I beg, therefore, most earnestly to bring to your notice the absolute necessity for prompt action on the part of Congress, to save the medical corps of the navy from apparent disintegration. Immediate and efficient legislation can alone do justice to the services and ability of the present members of this valuable corps, and guarantee its future efficiency.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. GIDEON Welles,

Secretary of the Navy.

P. J. HORWITZ, Chief of Bureau.

List of eleven iron-clads ana twelve wooden vessels of 1863; showing average complement, number of days in commission, number of sick admitted, sent to