THE AMERICA N-SC AN DIN AVI AN REVIEW 
617 
tion in this respect has lately been given to the study of fatigue. In 
the past, although the causes of numerous industrial diseases and acci¬ 
dents were fairly well understood, employers did little or nothing for 
the relief of existing injurious conditions, whereas now the life and 
health of the worker are most carefully guarded and little is said about 
“contributory neglect.” This more humane attitude of employers has 
in part been enforced by legislation, but has also been brought about 
by a study of scientifically improved efficiency and increased produc¬ 
tiveness. In the furtherance of a higher civilization, medical science 
has played a prominent part through the application of its principles 
to the exercise of the arts and industries as related to the physical 
fitness of the community. 
The last half of the decade with which this report is more particu¬ 
larly concerned was interrupted by the World War, which inevitably 
stirred and stimulated the humanitarian tendencies of a science called 
upon to heal the wounds inflicted by the ravages of modern warfare. 
The application of medical knowledge is necessarily multiplied and 
intensified by the exigencies of war conditions. As a result, the influ¬ 
ence of the World War on the tendencies of modern medicine and sur¬ 
gery is felt in the adaptation of certain war taught lessons, driven 
home on the battlefield and in the crowded military hospitals, but 
applicable also in large measure to conditions obtaining in civil prac¬ 
tice. Medicine itself is a warrior in the great fight against disease and 
disablement, as shown by the work done during the war by the Medical 
Corps of the United States Army, which has never been excelled. The 
efficacy of national organization in medicine was demonstrated by Gen¬ 
eral Gorgas. Over 25,000 medical officers were enrolled in the army 
and given special training. Provision was made for psychologic test¬ 
ing and grading of troops in training. Fitness for aviation service was 
determined by trained experts. A special base hospital was estab¬ 
lished for each of the larger groups of diseases. Trench fever, a war 
disease, was first shown to be a vermin-transmitted infection, carried 
by the body-louse, through a Research Committee headed by Major 
Richard P. Strong, Medical Corps, U. S. Army, at a Stationary Hos¬ 
pital attached to the Rritish Army. The same mode of transmission 
has been shown for typhus fever by Nicolle in 1910. An important 
advance in experimental and practical medicine through the war is 
represented by greatly improved knowledge of war neuroses, com¬ 
monly known as shell-shock; investigation of the action of poisonous 
gases; study of the physiological and pathological effects of aviation; 
administration of vaccines in various diseases; the differentiation of 
various types of pneumonia in army camps, and many other activities 
too numerous to mention. Rehabilitation of the crippled and disabled 
represents another salient post-bellum aspect of modern American 
medicine. Institutes have been established during the past fifteen 
