Pharmaceutical  Service  in 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
November,  19 17. 
In  i860,  Marshal  Vaillant,  minister  of  war,  decreed  that  the  two 
corps,  medicine  and  pharmacy,  should  be  of  equal  importance,  irre- 
spective of  their  total  effectives.  By  this  decree  the  pharmaceutical 
cadre  consisted  of  159  officers  with  the  following  grades: 
1  Pharmacist-Inspector,  with  the  grade  of  General  of  a  brigade. 
5  Pharmacist  Principals,  1st  Class,  with  the  grade  of  Colonel. 
5  Pharmacist  Principals,  2d  Class,  with  grade  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel. 
36  Pharmacist-Major,  1st  Class,  with  grade  of  Chief  of  Battalion. 
42  Pharmacist-Majors,  2d  Class,  with  grade  of  Captain. 
55  Pharmacist  Aide-Majors,  1st  Class,  with  grade  of  Lieutenant. 
15  Pharmacist  Aide-Majors,  2d  Class,  with  grade  of  Second-Lieu- 
tenant. 
The  shortcomings  of  the  sanitary  service  during  the  Franco- 
German  war  were  severely  criticized  and  a  strong  demand  made  for 
its  reorganization.  The  medical  corps  demanded  exclusive  direc- 
tion and  autonomy  over  the  service  and  that  the  pharmaceutical 
corps  should  become  the  subordinate  and  in  consequence  a  sys- 
tematic reduction  of  the  authority  of  the  military  pharmacists.  The 
eminent  chemist,  J.  B.  Dumas,  gave  the  weight  of  his  scientific 
authority  in  favor  of  placing  the  direction  of  the  sanitary  service 
exclusively  under  the  medical  and  consequently  the  subordination 
of  the  military  and  administrative  influence  of  pharmacy.  The 
medical  inspector-general  Legouest,  while  ardently  advocating  the 
preeminence  of  the  medical  over  the  pharmaceutical,  declared  that 
"  the  project  must  respect  the  cadre  and  rank  of  the  military  pharma- 
cists and  that  there  must  be  preserved  to  pharmacy  all  its  rank,  its 
appropriation,  the  conditions  of  advancement  and  the  various  func- 
tions of  its  proper  service." 
In  1882,  a  new  law  was  promulgated  for  the  administration  of  the 
army  and  with  the  amendment  thereto  of  1889,  defined  the  authority 
of  the  military  sanitary  service  and  to  the  presehFtime  this  governs 
the  duties  of  the  service.  This  law  for  the  administration  of  the 
army  divided  the  military  service  into  five  branches,  the  sanitary 
service  being  the  last  specified.  Prior  to  this  time,  the  military  sani- 
tary corps  was  part  of  the  commissary  department.  It  now  became 
a  new  autonomy  comprising  the  military  physicians  and  pharmacists 
under  one  proper  hierarchy  and  with  the  grades  corresponding  to 
those  of  the  military  hierarchy  and  the  officers  of  the  sanitary  serv- 
ice enjoying  all  the  advantages  of  other  officers. 
