Am6Jt°oUber^9i7.'  >    Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army.  469 
be  no  question  as  to  the  superiority  of  the  individual  treatment  over 
this  method  of  "treatment  en  bloc."  The  proper  method,  and  the 
ideal  professional  method,  would  be  for  the  physician  or  surgeon 
to  diagnose  each  case,  prescribe  what  that  patient  needs  at  that  time 
and  to  have  the  medicines  compounded  freshly  and  dispensed  by  a 
competent  pharmacist.  To  do  otherwise,  is  dangerous  to  the  life 
of  the  patient  and  detrimental  to  the  medical  service. 
Comparison  of  the  Army  Pharmaceutical  Service  of  Foreign 
Nations  with  that  of  the  United  States. 
No  one  has,  as  yet,  estimated  the  percentage  of  mortality  in  the 
Army  resulting  from  improper  and  inefficient  medical  service.  The 
statistics  that  have  been  compiled,  however,  show  that  in  the  past 
wars,  the  number  of  men  dying  from  disease  was  many  times  that 
killed  by  the  enemy.  "  During  the  Civil  War,  the  Union  Army 
lost  by  deaths  from  disease  186,216  and  93,369  were  killed."  "  In 
the  Spanish-American  War  of  1898,  only  454  Americans  were  killed 
and  5,277  died  from  disease." 
In  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  Japanese  demonstrated  the  life 
saving  value  of  a  scientific  and  systematically  organized  medical 
department  and  the  remarkable  reduction  of  mortality  from  disease 
and  wounds  in  the  Japanese  Army  during  that  war  attracted  world- 
wide attention. 
In  the  present  World  War,  Germany  reports  that  87  per  cent, 
of  her  wounded  are  returned  to  the  service.  This  remarkable  con- 
servation of  life  is  very  properly  attributed  to  the  efficient  service 
of  her  highly  trained  medical  corps  and  accounts  very  largely  for 
the  ability  of  the  Germans  to  keep  up  their  vast  armies  on  all  the 
war  fronts.  It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  a  due  share  of  the 
credit  for  this  efficient  hospital  service  is  due  to  the  German  Army 
Pharmaceutical  Corps. 
The  pharmaceutical  service  in  the  German  Army  was  completely 
reorganized  in  1902.  Since  that  date,  the  pharmacists,  in  addition 
to  performing  purely  pharmaceutical  duties,  have  been  given  charge 
of  the  hygienic,  chemical  and  research  laboratories  of  the  army  and 
each  ranking  officer  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Corps  must  have  taken 
the  special  course  in  certain  official  laboratories  and  have  obtained 
a  diploma  as  a  chemist  qualified  to  examine  foods. 
Each  army  corps  has  an  associated  sanitary  corps  under  the  con- 
