194 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



inclined to anticipate research instead of service, shortly 

 achieved a new point of view and opinion. Skepticism 

 was replaced in some directions gradually, elsewhere rap- 

 idly, by faith in the practicability and immediate value 

 of various kinds of psychological work and eagerness for 

 its continuation and extension. In the end the psycho- 

 logical personnel of the army was completely swamped by 

 requests, demands and orders for help. Scores of tele- 

 grams and letters from commanding officers testify to 

 their hearty appreciation of efforts towards scientific 

 placement within the army and their desire for the in- 

 troduction or furtherance of psychological service in va- 

 rious departments or organizations. 



Skeptics, of course, still exist and there are inevitable 

 misunderstandings and prejudices, but the data at hand 

 indicate that at least seventy-five per cent, of the officers 

 of the United States Army have been won by actual dem- 

 onstration of values and first hand acquaintance with 

 psychological service to its hearty support. 



It is extremely important to emphasize at the outset 

 that this article deals with only one of the several impor- 

 tant lines of psychological military service, that, namely, 

 of the Division of Psychology of the Medical Depart- 

 ment. 



Purposes of Mental Examining. As originally con- 

 ceived, psychological service within the Medical Depart- 

 ment was to assist medical officers, and especially neuro- 

 psychiatric officers, in discovering and eliminating men 

 who are mentally unfit for military duty. It appeared,, 

 prior to actual trial, that reasonably well planned methods 

 of mental measurement should enable psychological exam- 

 iners to discover mentally inferior recruits as soon as 

 they arrived in camp and to make suitable recommendation 

 concerning them to the medical officer. It was also be- 

 lieved that psychologists could assist neuro-psychiatrists 

 in the examination of psychotic individuals. The pro- 

 posed role of the psychologist then was that of assistant 



