54 



MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



[Vol. XV, 



Under date of October 1, 1918, the Surgeon General was notified by the following indorse- 

 ment of favorable action concerning request for additional psychological personnel: 



[Second indorsement.) 

 War Dept., A. G. O., October 1, 1918.— To the Surgeon Genera!. 



1. Under authority conferred by the act of Congress, "Authorizing the President to increase temporarily the 

 military establishment of the United States," approved May 18, 1917, and July 9, 1918 (public 193), the President 

 directs that, for the period of the existing emergency, the medical department. Sanitary Corps, be increased by 1 lieu- 

 tenant colonel, 14 majors. 14 captains, 28 second lieutenants. The officers hereby authorized will be obtained as 

 provided in the third paragraph of section 1 and by section 9 of the act of May 18, 1917. 



2. The number of first lieutenants will be decreased from 57 to 31; this decrease to be accomplished as follows: 

 no vacancies in the grade of first lieutenant shall be filled until the number has been decreased, by promotion or other- 

 wise, below 31. No vacancies thus created above the grade of first lieutenant shall be filled, except by promotion, 

 until the number of first lieutenants has been reduced to 31. 



3. The authorization above is for the purpose of providing personnel for the Psychology Division of the Sanitary 

 Corps, medical department, as set forth in the accompanying table, marked "G 1." 



Bv order of the Secretary of War: 



H. B. Crea, 



Adjutant General. 



Table G 1. — Personnel required by Sanitary Corps, medical department, Division of Psychology. 



Thus ended happily the persistent attempts of the Division of Psychology to secure authori- 

 zation for the essential officer personnel. The official communications tell the story of initial 

 approval, subsequent disapprovals, and, finally, return to favorable action; but they do not 

 adequately indicate the bases for this surprising trend of events. Intimate knowledge of 

 the situation enables the chief of the Division of Psychology to state that there was seldom, 

 if ever, anything which could be characterized as personal. The service suffered from its 

 newness, its peculiar sort of novelty, from persistent confusion with neuropsychiatric work, 

 from other natural misunderstandings, from reasonable scepticism concerning practical value, 

 and, finally, from the investigation prematurely made by the committee on organization. 



Section 4. — General Orders covering psychological examining. 



It has already been pointed out on page 29 that general orders concerning psychological 

 examining were not issued by the War Department during the important period of extension 

 of examining. Indeed, not until August 14, 1918, were essential directions placed in the hands 

 of commanding officers by the War Department. 



The orders finally issued were modified from those prepared by Col. Burt as a result of his 



thorough investigation of psychological examining: 



War Department, 

 Washington, Augvst 14. 191ft. 

 General Orders, No. 74. 



VII. The Psychological Division shall be primarily established in the office of the Surgeon General, the School 

 for Military Psychology, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., at those points where depot brigades are or will be established, and at 

 Camp Humphreys, Va. In addition the Surgeon General shall maintain at the school of training for psychological 



