236 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



must give way to military necessity, since victory is the paramount 

 consideration and ultimate success the only complete justification of 

 war. Consideration for the wounded must not be allowed to inter- 

 fere with the interests of the army as a whole, and it has been said 

 that the commander takes best care of his wounded by annihilating 

 the enemy as promptly as possible. 



Like his combatant comrade the military medical officer must 

 bring to his aid, both in peace and in war, every resource known to 

 the healing art. In no other field of professional life is the physician 

 expected to be thoroughly familiar with so many diverse branches 

 of knowledge. 



The development of military medicine and surgery began at the 

 same time and kept pace with the slow growth of those arts in civil 

 life. Egyptians, Babylonians, and Hebrews had physicians with 

 their armies, and Sanskrit accounts inform us that thosuands of 

 years ago the wounded were removed from the field of battle, and 

 taken care of in tents where beds of leaves were prepared for them. 

 For many ages priests assumed the role of physicians in both military 

 and civil practice. Homer tells us that several of the great com- 

 manders were skilled in the treatment of wounds, and that a fleet 

 of 30 ships was set aside for the care and transportation of the 

 wounded — the first record of ships being used for that purpose. 

 That the work of the surgeon w T as appreciated in the time of Homer 

 is shown by the words he put into the mouth of Nestor : 



"A surgeon skilled our wounds to heal 

 Is more than armies to the public weal." 



Homer also lauded the two sons of Aesculapius, both for their 

 skill in arms and for their wisdom in surgery, and thus wrote of 

 them 1,200 years before the birth of Christ : 



" Of two great surgeons, Podalirius stands 

 This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands, 

 And great Machaon, wounded, in his tent 

 Now wants the siiccor which so oft he lent." 



Again he describes an operation performed by one of the surgeons 

 as follows: 



" Patroclus cut the forky steel away ; 

 While in his hand a bitter root he pressed, 

 The wound he washed and styptic juice infused ; 

 The closing ilesh that instant ceased to glow. 

 The wound to torture, and the blood to flow." 



As an example of the practice of a later Greek period, it is stated 

 that Xenophon had eight field surgeons with his 10,000 troops. 



During the Roman republic officers of wealth and prominence had 

 their own private surgeons who accompanied them on the march, but 



