May 24, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



511 



organize the physicians of the country who are 

 ineligible for membership in the medical reserve 

 corps on account of physical disability, over-age 

 (55), civic or institutional needs, into the volun- 

 teer medical ser\-ice corps. The members of this 

 corps will be classified according to their ability to 

 serve and will render aid to existing governmental 

 agencies upon request of the Army, Na\7', Public 

 Health Service, American Red Cross, or the Coun- 

 cil of National Defense. 



It is hoped that every physician who, for any of 

 the reasons enumerated above, is unalile to enroll 

 in the Medical Reserve Corps, will join the volun- 

 teer medical service corps. Since you have al- 

 ready indicated your desire to serve the govern- 

 ment by applying for a commission in the Medical 

 Reserve Corps you are among the first to be sent 

 an application blank which it is hoped you will fill 

 out and return immediately to this office. 



The blank provides for details as to reason 

 for ineligibility to the Medical Eeserve Corps 

 as to educational and professional experience 

 and other details. The fact is also recognized 

 that rejected applicants for service in the Med- 

 ical Reserve Corps may overcome the physical 

 defects that led to rejection, and may there- 

 fore become eligible, or that the essential pub- 

 lic or institutional needs may become less im- 

 portant as the extreme needs of the Army and 

 Navy become apparent. Each physician is 

 asked, therefore, to pledge himself to apply 

 for a commission in the Medical Reserve Corps 

 if at any time he becomes eligible. 



With the letter goes a leaflet setting forth 

 the rules of the organization. The general 

 management of the Volunteer Medical Service 

 Corps is vested in a central governing board, 

 which is a committee of the general medical 

 board of the Council of National Defense, and 

 the state governing boards consist of the state 

 committees, medical section. Council of Na- 

 tional Defense. 



The procedure for joining is simple. The 

 applicant returns his filled blank to the central 

 governing board in Washington, and it is then 

 referred to the proper state executive com- 

 mittee for its recommendations as to the quali- 

 fications of the applicant and as to the kind of 

 work for which he seems most fitted. 



The central governing board comprises the 

 following: Dr. Edward P. Davis, president. 



Philadelphia; Dr. Henry H. Sherk, vice-presi- 

 dent. Pasadena; Dr. John D. McLean, acting 

 secretary, Washington; Dr. Edward II. Brad- 

 ford, Boston ; Dr. Truman W. Brophy, Chi- 

 cago; Dr. Duncan Eve, Sr., Nashville; Dr. 

 William Duffield Robinson, Philadelphia; Dr. 

 George David Stewart, New York City; Dr. 

 Franklin Martin, Chicago, and Dr. F. F. Simp- 

 son, Pittsburgh, are members ex officio. 



THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 



The President has issued the following exec- 

 utive order: 



The National Research Council was organized in 

 1916 at the request of the President by the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, under its congres- 

 sional charter, as a measure of national prepared- 

 ness. The work accomplished by the council in or- 

 ganizing research and in securing cooperation of 

 military and civilian agencies in the solution of 

 military problems demonstrates its capacity for 

 larger service. The National Academy of Sciences 

 is therefore requested to perjjetuate the National 

 Research Council, the duties of which shall be as 

 follows : 



1. In general, to stimulate research in the 

 mathematical, physical and biological sciences, and 

 in the application of these sciences to engineering, 

 agriculture, medicine and other useful arts, with 

 the object of increasing knowledge, of strengthen- 

 ing the national defense, and of contributing in 

 other ways to the public welfare. 



2. To survey the larger possibilities of science, 

 to formulate comprehensive projects of research, 

 and to develop effective means of utilizing the 

 scientific and technical resources of the country for 

 dealing with these projects. 



3. To promote cooperation in research, at home 

 and abroad, in order to secure concentration of 

 effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate prog- 

 ress; but in all cooperative undertakings to give 

 encouragement to individual initiative as funda- 

 mentally important to the advancement of science. 



4. To serve as a means of bringing American 

 and foreign investigators into active cooperation 

 with the scientific and technical services of the 

 War and Na^•y Departments and with those of the 

 civil branches of the government. 



5. To direct the attention of scientific and tech- 

 nical investigators to the present importance of 

 military and industrial problems in connection with 

 the war, and to aid in the solution of these prob- 

 lems by organizing specific researches. 



