That the President may nominate and ap point in the medical department of the National army, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from the Medical Reserve Corps of the regular army not to exceed two major-gen erals and four brigadier-generals.
"That the commissioned officers of the Medical Corps of the regular army, none of whom shall have rank above that of colonel, shall be proportionately distributed in the sev eral grades as now provided by law.
'That the commissioned officers of the Medi cal Reserve Corps of the regular army, none of whom shall have rank above that of colonel, shall be proportionately distributed in the sev At the entrance of the United States into the World War (April 1917) the Medical Corps comprised 452 officers, and there were 2,600 members of the Medical Reserve Corps enrolled but inactive. Officers commissioned in the medical department for the week ended 4 Oct. 1918 totaled 35,374, the distribution being as shown in table on following page.
An applicant for appointment in the Medical Reserve Corps was required to be between 22 and 55 years of age, and to be qualified to prac tise medicine in the State or Territory in which he resided. In general, the personnel of the Medical Reserve Corps were successful physi cians and surgeons in private practice. To join, one had to apply to the adjutant-general of the army for examination ; then followed successively, preliminary examination, physical and mental. After qualifying as to physical stamina, clinical skill and aptitude mili tary service, the applicant was recommended for a commission by the surgeon-general, and appointment by the President followed.
The provision that a major might not be appointed after 45 was changed when the need for medical officers for the Great War became acute.
boards consisted of an officer from the Medical Corps and two officers from the Dental Corps. Mobile operating dental units in the shape of motors equipped as dental offices on wheels were in use at camps in the United States and with the army in France. Dental officers were assigned to base and general hospitals, and the dental Of the 10 per cent sanitary personnel, 4 per cent or 5 per cent were allotted to the Zone of the Advance and the balance to the Line of Communication or to home territory, or wher ever sick or wounded sent to the rear were to be cared for. War experience had shown the
necessity in the sanitary service of one individ ual for every man sick or wounded, because more than one-half of the personnel was held ready to render first aid and transport the dis abled to the rear, and consequently not avail able for their care thereafter.
For an army of 2,000,000 the National army organization provided for 20,000 medical offi cers and 200,000 enlisted men of the medical personnel—one officer and 10 enlisted men for every 100 enlisted men of the combatant forces. Thirty per cent of the entire authorized strength of the medical department was made up as follows: Master hospital sergeants, 5/2 per cent; hospital sergeants, /2 per cent; ser geants first-class, 7 per cent; sergeants, 11 per cent; corporals, 5 per cent and cooks, 6 per cent. Each authorized horsedrawn ambulance company, or similar organization, had a horse shoer, saddler, farrier and mechanic. Privates first-class were eligible for ratings for addi tional monthly pay as follows: As dispensary assistant, $2; as nurse, $3; as surgical assistant, $5. Dental Corps.—The Dental Corps com prised commissioned officers of the same grades and proportionately distributed among such grades as were provided for the Medical Corps. There was one dental officer for every thousand of the total strength of the army. The dentists of the country were particularly alert during the war with Germany, and the profession was mobilized to such a degree that there were suffi cient dentists available for an army of 5,000,000 men. In the examination of recruits dental defects were remedied by the gratuitous per formance of hundreds of thousands of oper ations. The Dental Corps division of the sur geons-general's staff enrolled dental officers, recommended them for assignment and promo tion, appointed examining and review boards and developed plans for service in the United States and abroad. The examining and review surgeons showed special skill in dealing with new problems.