248 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



construction of the present magnificent building. He remained with 

 the library until his death in 1913. In 1905 he was selected to lay 

 out the plans for the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital now facing the 

 Harvard Medical School. 



The name of Jonathan Letterman should alwa}^s be remembered by 

 military surgeons as the greatest sanitary organizer of modern times. 

 I have already referred to his plans for an ambulance corps which 

 became the basis for such service in all armies. He put an end to 

 the depleting of the ranks of the Army which had been caused by 

 injudicious and careless discharges for disability, and by the license 

 of sending to distant general hospitals men who should never have< 

 left the zone of operations. He insisted on having sick and wounded 

 treated at hospitals nearer the front whenever the condition of the 

 service and the welfare of the patient permitted, thus doing away 

 with one of the chief factors in military absenteeism. By well- 

 thought-out sanitation, strenuously enforced, he kept the Army of 

 the Potomac in a state of health unparalleled in forces of such 

 magnitude at that time. For alleviating the sufferings and saving 

 the lives of thousands of his countrymen, and for adding to the vigor, 

 discipline, and effective fighting strength of the principal army of 

 the Republic, he has a just claim to the grateful remembrance of his 

 professional brethren, of his comrades in arms, and of his country- 

 men. Gen. McClellan wrote of him in 1863, " I never met with his 

 superior in power of organization and executive ability." His name 

 is now commemorated in the Letterman General Hospital at the 

 Presidio of San Francisco. 



The most distinguished and important internist of the early French 

 school was Rene Laennec (1781-1826) . Like Bichat, the creator of de- 

 scriptive anatomy, he was a regimental surgeon in the French Revo- 

 lution. Both were early victims of phthisis. If we can trust Kip- 

 ling's description, it was while a military prisoner in England that 

 Laennec carried out the experiments with the stethescope, the instru- 

 ment with which his name is indissolubly connected. 



Intimately associated with the Post of Plattsburg Barracks, from 

 which I have recently come, is the name of an Army medical officer 

 at whose door opportunity knocked and was not refused entrance. 

 Dr. William Beaumont, by his observations and experiments on the 

 Canadian half-breed, Alexis St. Martin, laid the foundation for our 

 present knowledge of gastric digestion. Part of this work was car- 

 ried out at the isolated military post of Mackinaw in the primeval 

 forests of Michigan about 1825, and the remainder of the investiga- 

 tions were conducted at Plattsburg Barracks, N. Y. Beaumont was 

 the true leader and pioneer of experimental physiology in our 

 country. His work remains a model of patient, persevering investi- 

 gation, experiment, and research. 



