600 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VII. No. 1225 



25,000 have gone into the Medical Depart- 

 ments of the Army and Navy. No other 

 profession or calling has responded more 

 promptly to the needs of the country than 

 the medical profession. The great bulk of 

 the medical men who have gone into Hhe 

 government services were members of the 

 American Medical Association. 



The demands made on the medical pro- 

 fession by the war are so great that it is 

 evident that in order to secure the neces- 

 sary number of medical men for the gov- 

 ernment, and at the same time prevent 

 hardships in some communities and institu- 

 tions, it is necessary to organize the entire 

 profession of the country in a systematic 

 way. It therefore became necessary for 

 the American Medical Association, acting 

 with the Surgeon- General's Office, to take 

 a census of the available medical men in the 

 United States in each state, in each county, 

 in each medical school and in each hospital, 

 and to attempt to secure from each one of 

 these different units at least 20 per cent, of 

 the medical men. This plan will enable the 

 government to secure the necessary number 

 of medical oificers for an army of 5,000,000 

 men or more, and a navy of 1,000,000 with- 

 out any great hardship to any community 

 or to any institution. It is evident that a 

 plan of this kind is absolutely essential, and 

 it is the purpose of the American Medical 

 Association through its county and state 

 societies and its national organization to 

 create such a systematic classification and 

 secure the adoption of this plan. Such, a 

 plan means a voluntary draft of the med- 

 ical profession by the profession itself. 

 The medical profession will supply the men 

 needed by the government. No conscrip- 

 tion, no compulsion will be required. 



THE HONOR ROLL 



The survey has been completed, and was 

 published in The Journal, June 1. It gives 



the honor roll of the men who have already 

 gone into the service from each county and 

 state society. It gives the number of men 

 under 45 and under 55 years of age in each 

 county and the percentage of men who have 

 volunteered. Up to this date about 15 per 

 cent, of the total number of men have 

 volunteered. The Surgeon-General of the 

 Army has called for 5,000 more medical 

 officers, and the Surgeon-General of the 

 Navy needs about 2,000. It becomes neces- 

 sary for us to raise the total number of 

 medical officers this year to about 30,000, 

 ■which means nearly 22 per cent, of the 

 medical men of the country. 



As president of the association, I desire 

 to call the serious consideration of each 

 county medical society to the fact that in 

 order to do its duty it shot^ld furnish at 

 least 20 per cent, of its members for mili- 

 tary service. This situation should be met 

 fully and promptly by each county medical 

 society. In order to prevent hardships to 

 communities due to lack of medical service, 

 and in order to prevent the crippling of 

 medical schools and hospitals, no commun- 

 ity and no institution, unless it is clearly 

 oversupplied, should be allowed to furnish 

 more than 50 per cent, of its medical men. 

 As far as possible the quota from each 

 county should be filled by men under 45 

 years of age. If this is not possible men 

 up to 55 will be taken. As fast as each 

 county fills its quota of 20 per cent. — and 

 this should be done by each county within 

 the next few months — ^the secretary of the 

 county medical society should notify the 

 secretary of the state medical association 

 and the secretary of the American Medical 

 Association of that fact. 



THE SUPPLY OP MEDICAL MEN 



Profiting by the experience of the great 

 nations that entered the war in 1914, the 

 medical profession of the country, and the 



