90  Hospital  Corps  of  the  Navy.       {AFeJua?y  ^Y™' 
Navy  shows  the  important  place  occupied  by  this  branch  of  the 
military  service.  Their  work  has  been  so  admirably  conducted  that 
Naval  commanders  are  now  asking  for  many  more  men  trained  in 
this  special  branch  of  the  service.  The  development  of  the  Corps 
has  been  slow  but  it  has  clearly  proven  its  importance  and  the  need 
for  its  existence  is  being  more  generally  recognized.  At  the  present 
time,  the  temporary  rank  of  lieutenant,  has  been  authorized  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  the  Surgeon  General.  The  temporary 
rank  of  Lieutenant,  Medical  Corps  may  not  become  permanent  for 
the  hospital  corpsman.  This  was  only  a  war  measure.  If  those 
members  of  the  Corps,  now  holding  the  temporary  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant, were  required  to  pass  the  examinations  for  Passed  Assistant 
Surgeon,  they  would  not  be  able  to  qualify,  since  these  examinations 
are  for  graduates  of  medical  schools.  Their  work,  however,  fully 
justifies  the  advanced  rank  they  have  been  given. 
The  Naval  authorities  have  shown  that  they  recognize  the  im- 
portance of  this  Corps,  through  granting  these  temporary  commis- 
sions. The  Corps  has  proven  its  worth,  and  many  members  of  the 
Naval  Medical  Corps  and  other  Naval  officers,  who  have  seen  the 
work  of  the  Hospital  Corps  during  the  war,  are  proud  of  the  work 
it  has  accomplished.  Members  of  the  medical  corps  of  the  Army, 
who  have  observed  Naval  Pharmacists  at  work  on  transports,  have 
expressed  their  appreciation  of  the  organization,  training  and  ability. 
It  will  be  seen  by  pharmacists  that  the  duties  of  members  of  this 
corps  are  far  broader  than  the  usual  activities  of  the  apothecary  in 
civil  life,  although  pharmaceutical  training  in  accordance  with  the 
curriculum  of  a  modern  college  of  pharmacy  embraces  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  work  demanded  of  the  hospital  corpsmen.  .  The  full 
recognition  of  pharmacy  in  the  Navy  with  its  related  activities,  as 
the  collaborator  with  the  physician,  in  the  maintenance  of  health, 
treatment  of  disease,  and  the  healing  of  wounds,  has  been  established 
and  every  pharmacist  in  the  country  should  lend  his  aid  to  the  Naval 
authorities. 
Men  who  secure  commissions  are  required  to  successfully  pass 
severe  competitive  examinations.  Naval  pharmacists  firmly  be- 
lieve in  proper  control  over  the  granting  of  commissions  to  Phar- 
macists in  the  Navy,  and  with  the  new  light  which  has  come  to 
all  who  are  interested  in  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Navy  and 
in  the  work  of  its  Pharmacists  and  Hospital  Corpsmen,  the  N.  P.  S. 
A.  may  well  be  proud  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  by  pharmacists 
