July -4, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



11 



direct representation of the medical profes- 

 sion on this board. This is also true of the 

 navy, for its Medical Department is repre- 

 sented on the General Board. Oddly enough, 

 the anachronism still exists that in the Gen- 

 eral Staff of the United States Army the Med- 

 ical Department is regarded as an outsider. 

 The safeguarding of the health and lighting 

 vigor of an army, the salvage of its wounded, 

 the saving of man power through protection 

 from disease are still regarded as foreign to 

 staff organization. The medical and sanitary 

 formations are still regarded as non-combat- 

 ants, although those serving with the troops 

 often go forward and mingle with them in the 

 combats, that the morale of the men may be 

 better sustained. Duty demands it, and they 

 have shown themselves willing, in this war, to 

 be unarmed combatants, not non-combatants. 

 The ratio of the medical officers killed and dy- 

 ing of wounds has been exceeded only by that 

 of the infantry and artillery, which branches 

 necessarily bear the brunt of the battles. The 

 pro rata death rate of the medical officers has 

 exceeded that of aviators and of engineers. 



This subject is a matter for congressional 

 action, but the profession of this country, 

 while the experiences of this war are still 

 vivid in its mind, must turn to the Congress, 

 must make an intelligent exposition of these 

 facts, and must bring about, by legal enact- 

 ment, an adequate representation of the Med- 

 ical Department on the General Staff of the 

 army. 



I desire to draw but one more deduction 

 from the medical lessons of this great war, 

 and that in reality is the climax toward which 

 everything points. That is, if this nation, 

 through its present medical knowledge, has 

 within its grasp the power to control com- 

 municable, and hence preventable, diseases, 

 there must be established a nation-wide con- 

 trolling organization for this purpose a Na- 

 tional Department of Health. Over 33 per 

 cent, of our younger men were disqualified 

 from the draft for physical defects. There 

 is need of wider supervision of our growing 

 boys and girls to build up a more robust na- 

 tion, and it is especially urgent in rural dis- 

 tricts. If we are to have some form of imi- 



versal military service, the very necessity of 

 its universality demands some general super- 

 vision of the health of the youth of the na- 

 tion, through protection against the trans- 

 missible diseases, and direction over the giv- 

 ing of health to the people as we now give 

 education. This war has taught that there 

 remains economic value in the maimed and 

 wounded, and it is our duty to develop this 

 value to its fullest extent. The maiming and 

 injury of our workers, in the every-day work 

 of industry, far exceeds each year the battle 

 casualties of this war, and there is an eco- 

 nomic necessity and duty to be performed in 

 the salvage and reconstruction of the indus- 

 trially injured. 



Malaria still prevents the use of large areas 

 of our southern states, and saps the energy of 

 a large portion of the population. Typhoid 

 fever still rests as a blot on the rural hygiene 

 of this country. The control of epidemics be- 

 tween states is already in the hands of the 

 Public Health Service, and within states, if 

 state authorities request aid. Quarantine 

 from outside infection is also under federal 

 control. There are many other federal activi- 

 ties partially supervising health and disease 

 through the various departments of the fed- 

 eral government. But it all lacks the efficient 

 power of central correlation, and there remain 

 many public health activities that should be 

 undertaken by central action, from some of 

 the problems of infant mortality to the prob- 

 lems of the increase of degenerative diseases 

 of late middle life. It is the duty of the 

 American Medical Association, and of each 

 member of each state association, to urge on 

 Congress the establishment of a ]l>I'ational De- 

 partment of Health. 



WALTER GOULD DAVIS 



The meteorological service of the Argentine 

 Republic will be the enduring monmnent of 

 Walter Gould Davis, whose death on Aprd 30, 

 at his old homestead in Danville, Vt., removed 

 one of the world's best-known and most highly 

 respected meteorologists. 



As a young man Mr. Davis went to Argen- 

 tina to serve as assistant to Dr. Benjamin 



