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



i 



This task necessitates the group examining of draftees in depot brigade camps. All available evidence indicates 

 that intelligence grade or rating is of great practical importance. 



The Division of Psychology urgently requests that in connection with action on personnel for psychological work, 

 the personnel committee of the War Department and the following officers, who have made special study of psycholog- 

 ical work, be consulted: Col. R. J. Burt, Lieut. Col. L. P. Horsfall, Lieut. Col. Edgar King, Dr. W. D. Scott, and Mr. 

 G. H. Dorr. 



Far more pertinent than would at first seem is the following paragraph from cablegram received by the War 

 Department from Gen. Pershing, July 17, 1918: 



Prevalence of mental disorders in replacement troops recently received suggests urgent importance of intensive 

 efforts in eliminating mentally unfit from organizations new draft prior to departure from United States. 



It is doubtful whether the War Department can in any other way more importantly assist to lessen the difficulty 

 felt by Gen. Pershing than by properly providing for initial psychological examination of every drafted man as soon 

 as he enters camp. The examination is made on men in large groups and requires very little time. It enables the 

 examiners to single out for special study and report those cases which are of doubtful value to the service and which 

 perhaps should be used in this country rather than overseas. In the opinion of line officers, medical officers and psy- 

 chologists as well as of the civilian experts who have inquired into this matter for the Secretary of War, it is of prime 

 importance to use the simple methods of mental rating which have been devised to assist in classifying and properly 

 placing soldiers of the United States Army. 



The following description of conduct of group psychological examination of drafted men as they report in camp is 

 taken from the report of the chief psychological examiner at Camp Dix. It at once indicates the simplicity and expe- 

 ditiousness of the procedure. It is literally true that no officer, so far as this division ha3 been able to learn, who has 

 observed this method of making a mental survey of our drafted men and of thus securing results which are immediately 

 useful to personnel adjutants, to company commanders and to medical officers, has remained unconvinced of the prac- 

 tical importance of this work for the army. 



[A verbatim account of procedure in examining at Camp Dix is omitted here. The account shows the dispatch 

 with which examination is conducted and its coordination with the other procedures through which the recruit must 

 pass.] 



(b) "The psychological division shall be established at Camp Humphreys, Virginia. " To comply with this specific 

 order it is necessary to send a staff of four officers to this engineer's camp. The organization will be in no wise different, 

 so far as can be foreseen, in Camp Humphreys than in any other divisional training camp. 



The engineers of the Army have been keenly and intelligently interested in psychological service and have suffi- 

 ciently appreciated its possibilities especially to request that the work be adequately provided for in their large 

 camp. In this connection attention is directed to letter, which is appended, concerning psychological service, written 

 November 22, 1917, by Col. E. W. Markham of the 303d Engineers. This letter was written very early in the history 

 of psychological service in the United States Army and wnen methods were relatively crude and results certainly 

 much less valuable than to-day. 



(e) A staff of five commissioned officers is required for the proper conduct of service in the Office of the Surgeon 

 General. This includes, in addition to an administrative officer, an assistant administrative officer who is also respon- 

 sible for personnel ; two officers charged with the analysis of reports, revision of methods, and preparation of new methods ; 

 and an officer in charge of materials, who serves in addition as an examiner, responding to requests for psychological 

 examinations in and about Washington. 



During the past year more than 5,000 examinations of commissioned officers, enlisted men, and civilian personnel 

 of various corps of War Departments have been made in and about Washington by special requests of commanding 

 officers or heads of departments. 



It is further necessary to provide two inspectors who shall from time to time thoroughly investigate the organiza- 

 tion and conduct of psychological service in camps and other stations and fully report thereon to the Division of Psy- 

 chology, Surgeon General's Office. At present two inspectors are on duty. 



(d) "A school for military psychology shall be established at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia." This portion of the 

 general order has already been complied with, since a school was organized at Fort Oglethorpe in February, 1918. 

 Since that time more than 70 officers of the Sanitary Corps, psychological service, have been given at least two months' 

 intensive training in the school. There have also been trained during the same period approximately 260 enlisted 

 men, most of whom accepted voluntary induction into the army at request of the Division of Psychology on account of 

 their special professional qualifications and intellectual fitness for psychological service. This is probably by far 

 the strongest group of enlisted men in the United States Army. Approximately 25 per cent of the enlisted men, in the 

 judgment of the instructional staff and of the commanding officer at Fort Oglethorpe, earned promotion to commissioned 

 appointments in the Sanitary Corps during their service as students in the School of Military Psychology. 



The attention of the staff is especially invited to the following fact: Practically all of the enlisted men in the 

 psychological service are college gradviates who have had in addition professional post-graduate work in psychology 

 and allied topics. Is is safe to say that practically every one of the nearly 25 per cent of this personnel recommended 

 for commission by the authorities in Fort Oglethorpe would have won commissions in an officers' training camp. Nev- 

 ertheless, the action of the War Department in disapproving provision of adequate personnel for psychological service 

 has rendered it impossible for the medical department to promote these men from the enlisted group. They are to-day, 

 as they have been for months, doing officers' work although they are still enlisted men. The seriousness of this injus- 



