522 
Pharmaceutical  Service  in 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*•    November,  19 17. 
With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  and  the  greater  demand  conse- 
quently for  military  pharmacists,  the  government  instituted  a  phar- 
maceutical section  in  each  of  the  schools  for  the  Army  Sanitary 
Service  and  the  pharmacist  recruit  was  given  the  choice  of  attend- 
ing at  any  one  of  these  situated  at  Paris,  Montpelier,  Nancy,  Bor- 
deaux, Lille,  Lyon,  and  Toulon.  The  faculties  of  these  were  com- 
posed of  medical,  pharmaceutical  and  chemical  teachers  and  many 
leading  pharmacists  were  detailed  to  duty  as  teachers. 
The  disposition  of  the  pharmaceutical  corps  was  necessarily 
changed  by  the  existing  war  conditions  and  the  demands  made  upon 
the  service  by  the  exigencies  arising  have  been  enormous  and  could 
not  have  been  foreseen.  The  objects  sought  to  be  attained  by  the 
organization  of  the  sanitary  corps  in  the  war  were:  (i)  providing 
for  the  preparation  and  execution  of  measures  of  hygiene  and 
prophylaxis;  (2)  the  prevention  and  treatment  of  sicknesses  inci- 
dent to  the  march  and  to  the  camp;  (3)  the  first  treatment  in  com- 
bat, the  relief  and  removal  of  the  wounded  irrespective  of  nation- 
ality; (4)  hospitals  for  treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded;  (5) 
the  replacement  of  the  personnel  and  the  re-supplying  of  materials 
of  the  sanitary  formations. 
In  each  of  these  the  pharmacists  are  assigned  specific  duties  as 
for  example  an  ambulance  unit  in  the  infantry  is  provided  with  six 
physicians  and  one  pharmacist. 
In  the  campaign,  the  pharmacists  are  assigned  in  the  front  rank 
giving  service  to  their  regiments  and  with  the  infantry  ambulance ;  in 
the  rear,  with  the  ambulances  of  the  section;  the  evacuation  hos- 
pitals ;  the  sanitary  trains,  either  permanent  or  improvised ;  the  sup- 
ply depots,  the  reserves  of  the  sanitary  personnel. 
The  pharmacist  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  determining  the 
potability  of  the  water  supplies  and  generally  likewise  acts  as 
bacteriologist  of  the  division.  The  specified  lists  of  apparatus  and 
reagents  needed  for  these  tests  are  transported  according  to  the  regu- 
lations by  the  litter  bearers. 
It  is  the  mission  of  the  pharmacist  to  attend  the  ambulances 
during  battle,  to  render  first  aid,  remove  the  wounded,  to  supply 
the  hospital  material  and  attention  at  the  field  hospital.  The  phar- 
maceutical personnel  by  the  decree  of  April  26,  1910,  has  become 
the  principal  formation  of  the  infantry  ambulance.  This  consists 
of  the  following  under  the  command  of  the  pharmacist :  a  detach- 
ment of  four  attendants  as  litter  bearers  and  nurses,  one  corporal 
and  a  detachment  of  four  men  of  the  military  train. 
