Jan 21, 1799 D Sir I send you the draft of a Bill for regulating the [underline: Medical Establishment] (I avoid purposely the term [underline: department] which I would reserve for the great branches of [underline: Administration]) — You will see that nothing but an organization with a general outline of duty is provided for. Detail regulations will come from the President and the Departments and the less there are Legislated upon, in [undecipherable] cases, the better — when fixed by law, they cannot be varied as experience advises. — This particular establishment however, is one to the right fashioning of which I fell myself more than ordinarily incompetent You mention in one of your letters that by the law of the 16 of July [undecipherable] the appropriation for the augmented army ceases at the end of the present Session. This is one construction of that law. A different might perhaps be maintained. But be this as it may, you will find by the act of the * 16^th of July that 900 000 Dollars are there appropriated for the same object without any qualification — and I take it for granted that whatever money [undecipherable] have been [undecipherable] from the Treasury for the use of the War Department, however, to the end sine die from when the [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] acts [undecipherable] might be expended afterwards by the departments without any question about its regularity — [* Same date entitled [undecipherable] making certain appropriations &c] Yrs truly [undecipherable] [undecipherable] 21, 1799 James McHenry Esq