XVI 



THE WAR SERVICE OF THE MEDICAL 

 PROFESSION 



FREDERICK F. RUSSELL 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE MEDICAL CORPS 



OF THE ARMY 



THE number of medical officers in the army before we 

 entered the war was, on June 3Oth, 1916, 589, and this 

 number was made up of 443 belonging to the regular army and 

 146 who were members of the Medical Reserve Corps. On 

 June 30, 1917, one year later, and two and one-half months 

 after war had been declared, the prompt response to the call 

 for physicians from civil life to assist the small nucleus already 

 in service, resulted in an increase to 4125, of whom 487 be- 

 longed to the regular service and 3636 to the reserve. On June 

 30, 1918, there were 867 regular medical officers and 20,855 wno 

 were serving with temporary commissions in the Medical Corps, 

 a total of 21,722. On June 30, 1919, there were 948 regular 

 and 11,783 temporary medical officers, a total of 12,731. 



The greatest number in service was 989 regular and 29,602 

 temporary officers, a total of 30,591 about the middle of No- 

 vember, 1918. 



The enlisted force of the Medical Department increased 

 from 6691 on April 6, 1917, to 154,556 on July ist, 1918, to 

 264,181 on November I5th, 1918, and decreased to 98,396 on 

 June 3Oth, 1919. Until the time of the last reorganization of 

 the army, in 1909, the enlisted men of the Medical Department 

 were known as the Hospital Corps, a name far from appro- 



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