42 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [vol. xv. 



April 18, 1918. 

 From: The Surgeon General, U. S. Army. 

 To: The Adjutant General of the Army. 

 Subject: Authorized personnel, Sanitary Corps, N. A., for psychological service. 



1. January 19, 1918, the War Department authorized the securing of special commissioned and enlisted personnel 

 for psychological service, in accordance with plan outlined in third indorsement, copy of which accompanies this com- 

 munication. 



2. This authorization provides for commissioning in Sanitary Corps of 132 officers. To date approximately 80 

 officers have been commissioned. It is desired to complete the number up to the original authorized quota of 132 

 immediately. 



3. This is a professionally qualified personnel, the needs for which can not be met by officers already in the Sanitary 

 Corps. The course in military psychology is in progress at the M.O.T.C., Fort Oglethorpe, to which it is desired to 

 send at least 40 commissioned officers for special training on April 29. 



4. The fact that the Sanitary Corps has exceeded its allowance of officers at present, renders it impossible to rec- 

 ommend appointment of additional psychologists. The situation is urgent. During the next few weeks the Divi- 

 sion of Psychology will be expected to examine upwards of 200,000 men in the various recruit depots, training camps, 

 and ports of embarkation, and unless we are able to increase our personnel immediately and rapidly, it will be utterly 

 impossible to do the work which has been ordered. 



5. In view of the above facts it is urgently requested that special authorization be immediately granted the Sur- 

 geon General to recommend appointment in the Sanitary Corps of 50 additional professionally qualified men for psy- 

 chological service, the same to be ordered on appointment, to M.O.T.C, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., for training in military 

 psychology. 



For the Surgeon General : 



W. D. Wrightbon, 

 Lieut. Col. Sanitary Corps. 



On April 26 Maj. Yerkes was summoned to the War College by a member of the Committee 

 on Organization of the War Plans Division of the General Staff. To this officer all pertinent 

 information concerning psychological personnel and needs was presented, and at the close 

 of the interview Maj. Yerkes was given to understand that this officer favored approval of the 

 request for authorization to recommend the appointment of 50 additional psychologists, and 

 that the Division of Psychology might expect final word concerning the matter the following 

 day, Saturday, April 27. Early the following week the Division of Psychology was notified 

 by telephone that the special request had been disapproved. Later formal notice of the disap- 

 proval was received. 



The peculiarly interesting and puzzling fact about this action is that the committee on 

 organization saw fit to disapprove an essential portion of a plan which had previously been 

 carefully investigated and fully approved by the Surgeon General, a Committee of the War 

 College Division of the General Staff, the Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of War. The unfavor- 

 able action of the committee was taken despite the evident fact that the training of psychol- 

 ogists, and thus the securing of an officer personnel adequate for immediate needs, would thereby 

 be rendered impossible. 



Having failed at various times to secure authorization by individuals or committees 

 charged with special tasks to do precisely what the War Department had fully authorized in 

 January, 1918, the Division of Psychology prepared in May to make the best possible use of 

 its available personnel while awaiting final action of the Committee on Organization of the War 

 College with reference to personnel to be allowed the psychological section of the Sanitary 

 Corps. 



On May 7 the committee recommended to the Chief of Staff that no additional ranks 

 or personnel be allowed the psychological section of the corps pending investigation of the value 

 of psychological examining. It also recommended that The Adjutant General address to com- 

 manding generals of National Army cantonments and National Guard camps and the com- 

 manding officers of army posts, a letter requesting report on three points — namely: (1) The 

 value of psychological work in the military establishment; (2) the desirability of continuing 

 the work; (3) the possibility of having medical officers make psychological examinations. 



On May 16, 1918, the Division of Psychology received an informal memorandum, ad- 

 dressed by Lieut. Col. W. D. Wrightson, of the Sanitary Corps, to Col. C. L. Furbush, of the 

 Medical Corps, in which it was stated that the General Staff had disapproved changes in psy- 

 chological personnel pending the special inquiry described in the preceding paragraph. 



