Am.  jour.  Pharm.  )  Pharmaceutical  Corps  in  U.  S.  Army. 
May,  1918.  J 
325 
so  valuable  an  asset  should  be  fixed.  The  department  must  ex- 
plain to  the  satisfaction  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  why 
their  kinsmen  and  loved  ones  whom  they  are  sacrificing  to  the 
cause  of  the  nation  are  not  receiving  the  same  care,  attention  and 
the  scientific,  hygienic  and  pharmaceutical  service  that  has  been  pro- 
vided for  the  soldiers  in  the  modern  armies  of  both  our  allies  and 
enemies. 
Pharmaceutical  Service  in  the  Foreign  Armies. 
No  one  has,  as  yet,  estimated  the  percentage  of  mortality  in  the 
Army  resulting  from  improper  and  inefficient  medical  service.  If 
such  be  attempted  the  figures  will  probably  be  appalling.  The 
statistics  that  have  been  compiled,  however,  show  that  in  the  past 
wars,  the  number  of  men  dying  from  disease  was  many  times  that 
killed  by  the  enemy.  "  During  the  Civil  War,  the  Union  Army  lost 
by  deaths  from  disease  182,216  and  93,369  were  killed."  "In  the 
Spanish- American  War  of  1898,  only  454  Americans  were  killed 
and  5,277  died  from  disease." 
In  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  Japanese  demonstrated  the  life- 
saving  value  of  a  scientific  and  systematically  organized  medical  de- 
partment, and  the  remarkable  reduction  of  mortality  from  disease 
and  wounds  during  that  war  attracted  world-wide  attention. 
In  the  present  World  War,  Germany  reports  that  87  per  cent,  of 
her  wounded  are  returned  to  the  service.  This  remarkable  con- 
servation of  life  is  very  properly  attributed  to  her  highly  trained 
medical  and  pharmaceutical  corps  and  accounts  very  largely  for  the 
ability  of  the  Germans  to  keep  up  their  vast  armies. 
The  pharmaceutical  service  in  the  German  Army  was  completely 
reorganized  in  1902.  Since  that  date,  the  pharmacists,  in  addition 
to  performing  purely  pharmaceutic  duties,  have  been  given  charge 
of  the  hygienic,  chemical  and  research  laboratories  of  the  Army  and 
each  ranking  officer  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Corps  must  have  taken 
special  chemical  instruction  and  qualified  as  a  food  and  drug 
chemist. 
The  cadre  of  the  corps  is  always  maintained  and  the  reserves 
are  available  for  service  in  time  of  war  need.  While  in  the  early, 
part  of  the  year  191 3,  the  total  number  of  commissioned  pharma- 
cists in  both  the  Army  and  Navy  was  reported  as  only  85,  this  was 
very  rapidly  increased  when  the  war  was  entered  upon  and  in  De- 
