September 28, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



307 



Skilled lumberjacks, portable mill operators, tie 

 cutters, logging teamsters, camp cooks, mill- 

 wrights and charcoal burners are among the 

 classes of men desired. For the " service " bat- 

 talions both negro and white laborers will be 

 enlisted. 



OCCUPATIONAL CENSUS OF THE ARMY 



The War Department has authorized the 

 following statement : 



There is now being made under the direction 

 of the Adjutant General a comprehensive occu- 

 pational and educational census of the men of 

 the National Army. 



The object is to carry the selective service 

 law to its logical conclusion and to increase the 

 efficiency of the army by putting the right man 

 in the right place. 



With this in view, a personnel organization 

 has been established in each of the 16 canton- 

 ments. The previous occupation, education 

 and preference for service of every man are re- 

 corded on individual cards, which are then filed 

 and analyzed at the divisional personnel office 

 in each cantonment. An analysis as to the en- 

 tire 687,000 men of the first increment can 

 readily be made from these records. 



In this work the War Department is having 

 the assistance of a body of civilian experts or- 

 ganized under the name " Committee on classi- 

 fication of personnel in the Army " and in- 

 cluding a number of professional employment 

 managers loaned to the government by large 

 industrial and business concerns. The data 

 collected will be used within the divisional or- 

 ganizations to assist division commanders in 

 making the best possible assignment of their 

 men. It will also be of importance in locating 

 men fitted for special branches of the service, 

 such as Aviation, the Ordnance Corps, etc., for 

 which it may he necessary to assign men from 

 the cantonments. 



It must not he assumed that men can con- 

 tinue their old occupations in the army. The 

 function of an army is to fight and most of the 

 men irrespective of previous occupations, will 

 be in the infantry and artillery. Nevertheless, 

 the specialization of modern war requires large 

 numbers of skilled men adapted for technical 

 units and special branches of the service. The 



locating and placing of such men to the best 

 advantage is of vital importance. 



OPPORTUNITY FOR PHYSIOLOGISTS AND 

 BIOCHEMISTS 



The Surgeon General of the army is organiz- 

 ing a Food Division of his office, the object of 

 which is to safeguard the nutritional interests 

 of the army by means of competent inspection 

 of food from the standpoint of nutritive value, 

 the supervision of mess conditions, including 

 the economical utilization of food, and a study 

 of the suitability of the army ration for troops 

 in the camp and in the field. Well-trained 

 physiologists and biochemists are needed to di- 

 rect this work. These men are being commis- 

 sioned, according to age and experience, as first 

 lieutenants and captains in the Sanitary Corps, 

 Medical Department; or, if they have medical 

 degrees, in the Medical Eeserve Corps. 



It is probable there will be as many commis- 

 sioned officers as there are camps and canton- 

 ments. Nutritional surveys will be conducted 

 at the camps by surveying parties composed of 

 these conmiissioned officers, and of drafted 

 men, who have had scientific training, acting 

 as assistants and clerks. It is estimated that 

 such a survey can be completed in from ten 

 days to two weeks for each camp. 



It is hoped by means of these surveying par- 

 ties also to instruct the company mess sergeants 

 and company cooks in improved methods of se- 

 lecting and preparing the foods. A school for 

 the finished training of the scientists employed 

 in this work is now being organized. The or- 

 ganization of the army, the army methods of 

 handling and cooking foods, the latest methods 

 of food examination and analysis, the conduct 

 of the food survey and kindred topics will be 

 covered by competent instructors from various 

 departments of the army and other departments 

 of the national government. 



The facilities of the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 including its analytical laboratories scattered 

 over the country, have been placed at the dis- 

 posal of the Food Division for this work. 

 Analyses of the garbage will be made and of all 

 foods whose composition is not already known, 

 and the actual distribution of nutrients and of 

 total calories consumed by the men wiU be com- 



