Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  | 
November,  19 17.  > 
the  French  Army. 
517 
pharmacy  were  established  on  a  perfect  equality,  lending  mutual 
support  and  cooperating  together  while  proceeding  separately,  never- 
theless, in  all  the  services  which  they  render  to  humanity  and  in 
extending  the  domain  of  knowledge,  they  are  equally  honorable." 
The  situation  created  by  the  law  of  1788  was  fortunately  modi- 
fied by  subsequent  regulations  and  decrees  which  ameliorated  the 
situation  materially  and  hastened  a  reorganization  of  the  sanitary 
service  in  1796.  The  law  enacted  that  year  suppressed  the  Sanitary 
Council  then  in  existence  and  their  functions  and  powers  were  as- 
signed to  six  inspector  generals ;  two  physicians,  two  surgeons  and 
two  pharmacists  (the  same  Bayen  and  Parmentier),  with  equal 
authority  over  the  three  subdivisions  of  the  sanitary  service.  The 
right  of  honorable  distinction  had  already  been  accorded  to  all  these 
branches  of  service  by  the  regulations  promulgated  in  1792  and  so 
the  absolute  equality  of  the  three  professions  was  established. 
In  1803,  an  attempt  was  made  to  reduce  the  standing  of  medi- 
cine and  pharmacy  and  advance  that  of  surgery;  the  proposition 
being  to  have  six  inspector  generals,  three  to  be  surgeons,  two  physi- 
cians and  only  one  pharmacist.  Subsequently  the  war  department 
reduced  the  number  of  hospitals  and  neglected  the  sanitary  service 
to  a  point  where  Talleyrand  in  his  speech  to  the  French  armies  on 
April  2,  1 814,  denounced  a  policy  that  expected  the  soldiers  of 
France  "  to  withstand  the  fire  of  the  enemy  without  having  sub- 
sistence and  without  hospitals." 
During  this  period  the  sanitary  cadres  were  very  variable,  de- 
pending largely  upon  the  needs  of  the  army  in  time  of  peace  or  in 
time  of  war.  In  1812,  the  effective  military  pharmacists  numbered 
1,011  in  the  total  of  5,112  officers  of  the  sanitary  service.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1824,  the  personnel  of  the  entire  sanitary  service  numbered 
only  917  officers,  classified  as  surgeons,  711;  physicians,  59;  and 
pharmacists,  147.  By  the  act  of  August  12,  1826,  this  effective  was 
again  modified,  the  number  of  physicians  and  surgeons  was  in- 
creased, and  the  number  of  pharmacists  decreased.  This  act,  how- 
ever, established  the  grade  of  pharmacist  aide-major. 
In  1852,  the  sanitary  service  of  the  army  was  arranged  into  two 
parallel  and  independent  corps,  medicine  and  pharmacy.  The  mod- 
ern history  and  development  of  these  corps  can  be  stated  to  have 
been  then  inaugurated  as  a  basis  for  fusion  had  been  established 
and  there  was  at  least  a  temporary  cessation  of  the  rivarly  and 
jealousies  that  had  so  long  existed. 
