MEDICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. The Medical Department of the Army, of which the surgeon general is chief, aims: 1. To conserve the strength of men and officers— (a) Through prompt attention to disease and disabilities re vealed by physical examination; (b) through supervision of sanitaty conditions.
2. To move non-effectives to the rear with out using effective fighting men for such service and without in any way obstructing military operations.
3. To provide medical and surgical care for the sick and wounded (including control and management of military hospitals), restoring the disabled to active military service or to useful and remunerative places in civil life.
The service of the medical man is constant. Every recruit must he examined, because the army must be without weaklings and without disease. Health must be maintained. Prophy lactic measures must be instituted and insisted upon and remedial measures applied both for illnesses in camp and as a result of battle casu alties. It is the doctor's job to make and keep the soldier fit to fight. His work is to a tre mendous degree effective in preserving the morale of the army. It is the task of the medical department to succor the wounded so swiftly that their comrades may know that, should their turn come, they will be cared for as expeditiously and efficiently as is possible. Thus the medical men directly heighten the morale of troops.
The army doctor used to be one who could do a little of everything in an emergency—he was pretty much in the same class with the country doctor of 30 years ago. Major-Gen eral Gorgas once said: •I do not think we have a more useful man in the army than the medical man who can pull a tooth, bind a fin ger, or take charge of the casualties that occur in a moving command, and do all these things equally well.° The medical department consists of the medical corps, medical reserve corps, contract surgeons, dental corps, dental reserve corps, veterinary corps, veterinary reserve corps, nurse corps, sanitary corps, ambulance corps and enlisted (formerly hospital corps) men.
The insignia of the med ical department is a caduceus of bronze metal one inch high ; the letters D., S. A., and C.S. in gilt metal super imposed, designating, re spectively, Dental, Sanitary and Ambulance Corps and Contract Surgeons. Also, all persons belonging to the sani tary service, and chaplains, wear on the left arm a brassard bearing a red cross on white ground — the emblem of the sanitary service of armies — and all sanitary formations dis play the Red Cross flag with the National flag. All sanitary service material is marked with the Red Cross emblem. Green lanterns dis tinguish sanitary units at night.
Expansion of the Medical Organization during the Great War.— In the Army Appro priation Bill of 29 June 1918 (H. R. 12281), provision for an. increase in the number of offi cers in the higher commissioned grades of the medical department was made as follows: "Increase in medical department.— That the medical department of the regular army be, and is hereby, increased by one assistant surgeon general, for service abroad during the present eral grades as now provided by law for the Medical Corps of the regular army: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be held or con strued so as to discharge any officer of the regular army or deprive him of a commission which he now holds therein.) The proportion of commissioned medical officers in the regular army is not to exceed seven for every thousand of the total enlisted strength of the regular army. They must be citizens of the United States. The relative rank percentages of the commissioned officers below brigadier-general is as follows: colonel, 3.16; lieutenant-colonel, 5.42; major, 23.70; captain and lieutenant, 67.72.
war, who shall have the rank of major-general, and two assistant surgeons-general, who shall have the rank of brigadier-general, all of whom shall be appointed from the Medical Corps of the regular army.