| SENATE 57TH
CONGRESS, 2nd Session JOHN BOUGHER February 19, 1903 – Ordered to be printed. Mr Burton, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following REPORT (To accompany bill H. R. 16996) The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 16996) granting an increase of pension to John Bougher, have examined the same and report: The report of the Committee on Invalid Pensions of the House of Representatives, hereto appended, is adopted and the passage of the bill is recommended. The House report is as follows: This bill proposes to increase the pension of the soldier named therein from $12 to $24 per month. The records of the War Department show that John Bougher, now 66 years of age, served as a private in Company F, Fortieth Iowa Infantry, from August 11, 1862, to August 2, 1865, when honorably discharged, and that he was under treatment at various dates for remittent and intermittent fever. He proved that he incurred a sunstroke in the service in May, 1864, and that he also injured his left elbow while in service and line of duty, and is now pensioned under the general law on account of sunstroke (mental hebetude a result) and injury to left elbow. A claim on account of an additional disability, namely, disease of the urinary organs, filed in 1888, was rejected in March, 1890, upon the ground of no pensionable disability from that cause since the filing of the claim. A claim on account of partial deafness, defective eyesight, and affection of head, filed in 1897, was rejected by the Pension Bureau in February, 1902, upon the ground of no record of treatment in service or at discharge and claimant's declared inability to prove the origin of said disabilities in the service. Proof filed in the Pension Bureau shows that the beneficiary by reason of results of sunstroke has nervous debility and sinking spells or fits in hot weather, especially when exposed to the sun; that he has been partially deaf for a number of years, and that he suffers from pulmonary lung trouble. When last examined, on January 2, 1901, the board of surgeons rated him $6 for disease of eyes, $4 for rheumatism, $4 for injury of left elbow, $6 for heart disease, and $2 for effects of sunstroke, and the board of surgeons then stated that there was impairment of memory and mental faculties, probably due to sunstroke. There has been filed with your committee the affidavit of the beneficiary setting forth that his claim on account of additional disabilities was rejected in the Pension Bureau for the reason that they demanded testimony which it was impossible for him to procure at this time; that he has no property except a house and lot in Casswell, Mo., and household goods, all of which did not exceed in value the sum of $150; S R-57-2-VOL 3-43 that he was suffering from chronic bronchitis, chronic nervous cough caused by sunstroke, partial deafness, and general impairment of the whole cerebro-spinal system. The testimony of Dr S A Newman, of Casswell, Mo., also filed with your committee, sets forth that he recently made an examination of the beneficiary, found his general appearance much emaciated and debilitated, with pulse irregular and intermittent; that he has chronic bronchitis affecting the lower half of the left lung; that the claimant gives a history of a chronic nervous cough caused by sunstroke during the civil war; that an examination of the left forearm reveals an imperfectly healed fracture of the radius 1 1/2 inches below the head of the bone, making the joint tender; that he was also partially deaf, and that there was a general impairment of the whole cerebro-spinal system and impaired mental faculties, probably due to sunstroke. Other testimony filed with your committee sets forth that the financial condition of the beneficiary is very poor; that he has only a little lot and a poor old house that could not be sold for more that $100, and household goods worth not over $35. No doubt the impairment of the cerebro-spinal system and mental faculties of this soldier are the results of the sunstroke of accepted service origin, in view of which, taking also into consideration the fact that the beneficiary rendered three years of service, the relief sought for in the bill appears warranted, and the bill is therefore reported back with the recommendation that it pass. |