324  Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army.  {Am-^I^f.rm- 
are  outspoken  in  their  support  of  pharmacy  as  a  necessary  branch 
of  the  military  medical  service  and  in  favor  of  its  proper  recogni- 
tion with  commissioned  rank. 
The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  on  June  16, 
1 91 7,  editorially  commented: 
So  far  as  official  recognition  of  it  is  concerned,  the  science  and  art  of 
pharmacy  might  not  exist  for  the  Army.  To-day,  as  never  before,  victory  in 
war  goes  to  the  nation  that  most  effectively  preserves  the  health  of  its  fighting 
men.  The  physician  is  now  of  such  military  importance  that  the  medical  pro- 
fession will  be  called  on  to  make  no  inconsiderable  sacrifices.  It  will  mate- 
rially lighten  the  arduous  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  physician  to  have 
in  the  Army  trained  pharmacists  who  will  be  able  to  give  intelligent  coopera- 
tion. But  it  is  imposing  too  greatly  on  the  patriotism  of  those  whose  special 
knowledge  is  obviously  a  large  asset  to  the  Army,  to  expect  them  to  enlist  as 
privates  without  any  recognition  of  their  national  worth.  Pharmacists  should 
be  given  a  rank  commensurate  with  their  importance,  first  because  it  is  but  a 
simple  justice  to  the  pharmacists  themselves,  secondly,  because  the  usefulness 
of  the  medical  corps  will  be  greatly  augmented  and,  lastly,  and  most  important, 
because  the  efficiency  of  our  Army  demands  it. 
War  is  the  supreme  test  of  a  nation's  efficiency  and  in  time  of 
war  it  is  of  paramount  importance  that  each  man  be  put  to  the  work 
in  which  he  can  render  the  most  useful  service  to  the  nation.  The 
magnitude  of  modern  warfare  demands  the  most  perfect  organiza- 
tion and  the  most  effective  service  and  nowhere  is  this  of  more  im- 
portance than  in  the  medical  service  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 
Each  line  of  activity  requires  specialized  education  and  training, 
and  to  permit  one  branch  of  activity  to  encroach  upon  the  special 
field  or  duty  of  another  means  national  inefficiency,  if  not  actually 
national  suicide.  To  place  a  skilled  Army  surgeon  in  charge  of  a 
medical  supply  depot  to  look  after  the  procuring  and  distribution  of 
medical  and  hospital  supplies  and  the  accounting  thereof  is  waste- 
ful of  his  special  talent  that  may  be  sorely  needed  elsewhere.  The 
military  surgeon  has  more  than  enough  to  do  to  attend  to  the 
strictly  medical  needs  of  the  sick  and  wounded  and  to  make  the 
necessary  examinations  and  reports,  and  the  medical  profession  is 
asking  for  skilled  and  adequate  assistance  and  for  relief  from  the 
non-medical  work  imposed  upon  the  medical  corps. 
So  far  there  has  been  no  attempt  to  mobilize  the  pharmaceutical 
asset  of  the  nation  and  to  organize  this  into  a  pharmaceutical  corps 
that  will  give  to  our  soldiery  a  proper  medical  dispensing  service; 
a  service  worth  having.    The  responsibility  for  this  failure  to  use 
