When these appalling figures are properly rec ognized, and the advantages of extreme conserva tion on the field is appreciated, the true field of the military surgeon will be found. Ile must possess executive ability and a certain amount of military training, so that in time of action lie can quickly organize his assistants and hospital corps, seeing that the wounded are brought promptly from the firing line to the first dressing station. This should be located at the nearest protected spot to the firing line. Here the wounded man can receive such immediate atten tion by the surgeon or an assistant as is im peratively demanded; dressings if out of place can be readjusted; in case of fractures or joint injuries the limb can be immobilized in splints, and the soldier can rest until transported by ambulance or otherwise to the field hospital, which should be located well in the rear. Here the case can receive thorough attention, and later be transported to a general or base hospital, a hospital ship, or a civil hospital, as is deemed most advisable. The problem of rapid transpor tation of the wounded is one that should engage much attention. Splendid results in the develop ment of this feature were attained in the war with Spain, by the hospital ships and fast rail way train in charge of the surgeons of the Ameri can Army, and many valuable lives were saved in consequence.
But it is at times when the army is not in action that the responsibilities of the military surgeon are greatest. In order to prevent the in
vasion of that deadlier foe, whose fatalities in every year are never less than five times greater than those killed in battle, lie must prove himself a keen sanitary engineer in the selection of camp sites, of camp drainage, of the location of lat rines; in the inspection of all water supplies, the quality of food and its cooking, and of the soldier's clothing and his personal cleanliness. He must be an epidemiologist and a bacteriologist, as well as a student of dietetics and metabolism. Terrible epidemics of typhoid fever, cholera, dys entery, and diarrhma have resulted from flies car rying disease germs from unsavory places to the mess-hall. or through the drinking of polluted water. The parasite of malaria and of yellow fever is transmitted through the medium of the mosquito, that of tuberculosis through the sputum. (See INSECTS, PROPAGATION OF DISEASE BY). The iron-clad ration of the soldier has at times led to starvation or scurvy, or has proved an excitant to intestinal disease. With all these problems the military surgeon must be prepared to wrestle, especially when he is with newly recruited troops, unaccustomed to the rigorous discipline of army life, or when sta tioned in tropical climes. The normal condition of the soldier is health ; disease and premature death are to a large extent unnecessary. "They are to be overcome, however, not by the abroga tion of the intellectual faculty, but by its exer else."