Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  191 7.  J 
in  Military  Medicine. 
599 
I  need  only  mention  here  the  enormous  assistance  that  the 
pharmacists  as  now  taught  and  trained  could  be  to  medical  men  not 
alone  along  pharmaceutical,  chemical,  toxicological,  bacteriological, 
but  in  X-Ray  and  other  lines.  I  have  emphasized  this  in  a  paper 
published  recently  in  the  New  York  Medical  Journal. 
H.  R.  Bill  5531  introduced  by  Representative  The  Hon.  Geo.  W. 
Edmonds  of  Philadelphia  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  July 
25,  1917,  is  an  excellent  and  important  one,  and  I  believe  that  this 
bill  covers  the  field  comprehensibly  and  creditably.  Doubtless  it 
may  need  amendment  in  technical  military  details  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  Army  and  Navy. 
I  express  the  hope  and  believe  that  the  "  brief  "  filed  with  Sur- 
geon-General Gorgas  by  the  pharmacists  on  August  10,  1917,  will  re- 
ceive sympathetic  attention.  This  extraordinarily  able  official  could 
perform  no  act  of  public  service  more  to  the  benefit  of  the  medical 
department  and  his  credit  than  the  recognition  of  skilled,  highly 
trained  professional  pharmacists,  by  supporting  H.  R.  5531  as  an 
administration  measure.  His  predecessor,  Surgeon-General  Torney, 
had  established  the  dental  corps  and  the  veterinary  corps.  It  would 
be  peculiarly  fitting  if  Surgeon-General  Gorgas  could  have  estab- 
lished the  pharmaceutical  corps. 
PROPOSED  ORGANIZATION  OF  UNITS  FOR  PROMOTE 
ING  THE  BILL  BEFORE  CONGRESS,  KNOWN  AS 
THE  EDMONDS  BILL  FOR  SECURING  AN 
ARMY  PHARMACEUTICAL  CORPS.1 
By  Dr.  F.  E.  Stewart,  Philadelphia. 
You  are  already  familiar  with  the  Edmonds  Bill  now  before 
Congress,  having  as  its  object  the  establishment  of  a  pharmaceutical 
corps  in  the  United  States  Army.  You  know  that  one  of  the  objects 
in  organizing  such  a  corps  is  to  lessen  the  strain  imposed  by  the  war, 
upon  the  medical  department — a  strain  that  is  bound  to  increase  as 
the  war  goes  on. 
1  Read  before  the  joint  meeting  of  the  National  Pharmaceutical  Service 
Association  and  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  Nov.  13,  1917. 
