HISTORY OF MILITARY MEDICINE AND ITS 

 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE. 1 



By Col. Weston P. Chamberlain, Medical Corps, U. S. Army. 



The use of arms, however primitive, for offense or defense, must 

 be almost coeval with the appearance of man upon this planet. The 

 carvings of prehistoric races depict the march of organized armies, 

 and from the deepest shadows of history echoes faintly the clash of 

 contending nations. In ancient times the art of war, like other 

 fields of human endeavor, was simple in its practice, victory depend- 

 ing largely upon numbers and brute strength, though the successes 

 of the great commanders of the past, such as Alexander, Pyrrhus, 

 Hannibal, and Caesar, were due in part to superior equipment, and 

 in part to a better grasp by them of the principles of military tac- 

 tics and strategy. With the increasing complexity of civilization 

 the art of Avar has not been left behind. Its demands along the lines 

 of equipment, personnel, and brains have steadily increased, and 

 to-day more than ever before, we find in Europe that the latest dis- 

 coveries in every branch of science, the coordinated energies of the 

 entire nation, and the keenest of intellects are requisitioned to add 

 to the death-dealing powers of the contending races. 



While war dissipates treasure, and sacrifices human life by reason 

 of disease and injury, it is the duty of the medical officer to prevent 

 needless wastage of life and limb, first in order to promote military 

 efficiency and secondly in the interest of humanity. And let it he 

 emphasized at the outset that to-day the first duty of military medi- 

 cine is not humanitarianis/u. War in its essence is both cruel and 

 wasteful, putting the good of the whole above that of the individual, 

 and the- military medical service aims primarily to prevent unneces- 

 sary waste and to remove from the front the inefficient, in order that 

 the supreme commander may have the largest possible number of 

 unhampered fighting men on the firing line. If there is a clash be- 

 tween the welfare of the wounded and the movements necessary for 

 the most efficient prosecution of the conflict, then humanitarianism 



1 Reprinted by permission, from the Boston Mcdiral and Surgical Journal, Apr. 5, 1917. 



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