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EDITORIAL. 
Reorganization  of  the  Medical  Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army. — Under  this 
head,  in  the  Army  and  Navy  Journal  of  August  5,  1865,  a  writer,  signing 
himself  l<  M,"  criticises  a  previous  correspondent  "  H,"  of  that  Journal. 
The  following  extract,  relative  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Department  of  the 
Service,  is  deemed  of  interest  to  our  readers.   The  writer  is  unknown  to  us. 
"H."  further  recommends  that  "the  fourth  oldest  Medical  Officer  on 
the  list  be  made  Purveyor-General,  and  the  best  Medical  Storekeeper  or 
the  Medical  Officer  of  the  Regular  or  Volunteer  Corps  who  shall  pass  the 
best  examination  in  pharmacy,  etc.,  be  made  Deputy  Purveyor-G  eneral : 
these  officers  to  be  charged  under  the  Surgeon-General  with  providing 
supplies  for  the  Army,  etc." 
Now,  in  my  opinion,  this  branch  of  the  Medical  Department,  that  of 
supplying  the  Army  with  medicines,  needs  more  reform  than  any  other ; 
but  in  order  to  submit  a  plan  which,  it  seems  to  me,  would  remedy  most 
evils,  I  have  to  take  up  another  point  of  "  H."s  article.  He  says  "  the 
rank  of  the  Hospital  Steward  should  be  raised  to  that  of  Cadet,  etc." 
What  does  hospital  steward  mean  ?  In  our  Army  it  means  a  man  who 
is,  according  to  the  law  (General  Order,  No.  2,  War  Department,  Adju- 
tant-General's Office,  Feb.  24,  1859),  "sufficiently  intelligent  and  skilled 
in  pharmacy  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  responsible  duties  likely  to  be 
devolved  upon  him,;'  or,  in  other  words,  he  should  be  able  to  read  and 
write,  and  put  up  a  prescription.  He  also  has  charge  of  all  the  public 
property  in  the  hospital,  of  the  policing,  of  the  providing  of  the  sick  with 
meals,  he  has  to  keep  the  hospital  records  and  accounts,  must  be  able  to 
perform  the  minor  surgical  operations,  and,  in  cases  of  emergency,  or  in 
the  absence  of  the  Surgeon,  he  is  called  upon  to  prescribe  for  the  sick. 
Thus  the  hospital  stewards  in  most  armies  are  divided  among  three  men, 
viz. :  the  apothecary,  the  chirurgus,  and  the  steward  proper.  To  call  an 
apothecary  or  a  chirurgus  steward  is  simply  ridiculous,  especially  in  a 
country  where  every  negro  waiter  in  a  restaurant  desires  to  be  addressed 
as  steward. 
"  H."  says  the  steward  should  be  subjected  to  a  most  "  rigorous  exami- 
nation"— examination  on  what  subjects,  I  ask — materia  medica,  chemis- 
try, botany,  etc.?  Or  shall  he  be  examined  on  Powers'  Minor  Surgery? 
No.  Dr.  J.  J.  Woodward's  excellent  book,  entitled  Hospital  Stewards' 
Manual,  and  made  authoritative  by  order  of  the  then  Surgeon-General, 
(Dr.  Hammond,)  who  ordered  a  liberal  supply  of  the  same  to  be  purchased 
and  sent  to  all  the  Armies — is  the  work  which  tells  all  the  steward  is 
obliged  to  know  and  to  do. 
"  The  hospital  steward,"  "  H."  says,  "  should  be  allowed  and  induced 
after  two  years'  service  to  enter  the  list  of  Junior  Assistant-Surgeons." 
Now,  I  ask  "H."  how  he  proposes  to  make  out  of  the  nondescript,  a  hos- 
pital steward  of  this  day,  in  two  years'  time,  a  physician  ? 
What  is  needed  to  supply  the  want  of  the  Medical  Department  of  the 
Army  in  this  respect  is  a  corps  of  thoroughly  educated  apothecaries — not 
drug-clerks,  whose  whole  knowledge  consists  in  knowing  how  to  u  make  a 
bundle."  A  thoroughly  educated  apothecary  will  know  how  to  keep 
accounts,  and  experience  will  teach  him  how  a  hospital  should  be  con- 
ducted. Constitute  them  as  a  separate  corps  under  an  Apothecary-Gene- 
ral instead  of  Purveyor-General,  with  two  Deputy  Apothecary-Generals. 
The  Apothecary-General  with  the  two  Deputy  Apothecary-Generals  to  be 
charged  under  the  Surgeon-General  with  providing  supplies  for  the  Army, 
— the  Apothecary-General  and  one  Deputy  Apothecary-General  to  be 
stationed  in  New  York  city,— the  other  Deputy  Apothecary-General  to 
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