November 16, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



485 



soldiers suffering from shell-shock and nervous 

 breakdown. It can not be too widely known 

 that this is exactly the treatment practised 

 at the British Hospital, 72 Camden Eoad, 

 London, N. W. 1, England, for over a quarter 

 of a century. The hospital has given effective 

 and permanent relief gratuitously to thou- 

 sands of men, women and children. The war 

 has obviously increased the number of cases 

 suffering from shell-shock and nervous break- 

 down to a marked extent, and the hospital is 

 at present appealing for additional funds to 

 cope with the position, and also with the ob- 

 ject of sending patients into the country, so 

 necessary for their speedy recovery. 



Will our American friends help us? Dona- 

 tions, however small, will be greatly appre- 

 ciated and may be sent to me or the Secretary, 

 Mr. F. J. Lee-Smith, 72 Camden Eoad, 

 London, IST. W. 1, England. 



Margaret Forbes Winslow 



QUOTATIONS 



INCREASED RANK AND MORE AUTHORITY FOR 

 MEDICAL OFFICERS 



As most of our readers are aware, an amend- 

 ment was introduced into Congress at the re- 

 cent session which, if it had been adopted, 

 would have given the medical officers in the 

 Army the same rank that prevails in the 

 Medical Corps of the ISTavy. Specifically the 

 amendment provided that there should be 

 twenty-five one-hundredths of 1 per cent, of 

 major-generals, the same proportion of briga- 

 dier-generals, 4 per cent, of colonels, 8 per 

 cent, of lieutenant-colonels, 23.5 per cent, of 

 majors, 32 per cent, of captains, and 32 per 

 cent, of lieutenants, this to apply to ioth the 

 regular and the reserve corps men. Thus, if 

 there are 10,000 medical officers in active 

 service, there might be 25 major-generals, 25 

 brigadier-generals, 400 colonels, 800 lieuten- 

 ant-colonels, 2,350 majors, 3,200 captains and 

 3,200 first lieutenants. This amendment 

 lapsed without action by the ending of the 

 session. The substance of the amendment, 

 however, will be incorporated in a bill which 

 will be introduced in both the Senate and the 

 House at the coming session of Congress. 



Medical officers must be equal in rank and 

 authority with line officers if they are ade- 

 quately to carry out the duties for which they 

 will be held responsible. This fact has been 

 emphasized by the experience of our allies in 

 the present war, as well as by our own ex- 

 perience in the past. Our allies admit that in 

 the beginning the medical officer did not have 

 the rank, and consequently the authority, he 

 should have had and that, for this reason, 

 there have been grievous consequences. 

 Among these was the disastrous experience of 

 the British Army in the Mesopotamian cam- 

 paign as a result of the failure of the medical 

 service. The report of this tragedy, made by 

 a board of nonmedical men, showed that lack 

 of authority of the medical officers was an 

 important factor. The medical officers were 

 practically ignored. They were not advised 

 as to the character of the expedition that was 

 being undertaken, and as a consequence, they 

 were unprepared for what happened. When 

 later a medical officer made urgent representa- 

 tions in regard to the actual conditions ob- 

 taining, which in his opinion needed prompt 

 action, he was threatened with arrest and 

 removal from his post. When the actual re- 

 sults came the blame was thrown on the medi- 

 cal department, of which this medical officer 

 was a member. The medical officers were 

 censured because they had not protested more 

 vigorously. We had a similar experience in 

 1898 when our medical officers were criticized 

 for insanitary conditions at Chickamauga and 

 elsewhere, although there was plenty of evi- 

 dence to show that they had protested against 

 these conditions to line officers. The whole 

 sad story is told in detail in the Dodge report. 

 There, also, will be found testimony that line 

 officers treated with contempt the recom- 

 mendations and protests made by medical 

 officers. The medical officer is without influ- 

 ence simply because his shoulder straps indi- 

 cate lower rank than that of the line officer 

 with whom he is associated. Some may sneer, 

 but the fact remains that it is rank that 

 counts in both the Army and the Navy. 



Of course rank brings with it increased pay. 

 This, however, is immaterial. At the same 



