Aan*jSy,r"ig?irfn'  }     Pharmacy  in  the  Italian  Army.  .  455 
be  immediately  eligible  for  appointment  as  ensign,  lieutenant  (junior 
grade),  lieutenant,  or  lieutenant  commander,  Hospital  Corps,  United 
States  Navy,  in  the  ranks  held  by  them  as  temporary  assistant  sur- 
geons :  And  provided  further,  That  if  any  such  officer  in  examina- 
tion be  found  by  the  naval  examining  board  not  qualified  for  ap- 
pointment in  the  rank  held  by  him,  such  board  will  proceed  with  the 
examination  and  determine  the  rank,  if  any,  for  which  such  officer 
is  qualified,  and  shall  report  its  findings  and  recommendations  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  if  it  be  found  that  any  officer  so 
examined  is  not  qualified  for  appointment  in  the  rank  for  which 
examined,  or  in  any  lower  rank,  the  board  shall  so  report,  and  if 
such  officer  be  found  not  qualified  for  appointment,  or  shall  refuse 
to  accept  appointment  in  the  rank  for  which  qualified  and  recom- 
mended, his  temporary  commission  as  assistant  surgeon,  United 
States  Navy,  if  still  in  force,  shall  be  revoked ;  And  provided  further, 
That  officers  so  commissioned  in  the  Hospital  Corps  of  the  Navy 
shall  retain  the  precedence  with  officers  of  the  Naval  Medical  Corps 
that  they  held  as  temporary  assistant  surgeons,  except  that  officers 
found  qualified  for  a  lower  rank  than  that  held  by  them  in  the  tem- 
porary Navy  shall  be  given  a  date  of  precedence  as  determined  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy:  And  provided  further,  That  nothing 
herein  contained  shall  be  construed  to  legislate  out  of  the  service 
any  officer  now  in  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Navy  or  to  reduce 
the  rank,  pay  or  allowances  now  authorized  by  law  for  any  officer 
of  the  Navy. 
PHARMACY  IN  THE  ITALIAN  ARMY.1 
One  of  my  most  interesting  experiences,  during  the  five  years 
of  war,  was  the  time  spent  with  the  Italian  Army.  I  arrived  with 
the  British  and  French  troops,  sent  to  the  assistance  of  our  Italian 
comrades,  in  the  black  days  of  November,  191 7.  The  Italians, 
after  a  series  of  magnificent  victories  and  after  almost  superhuman 
military  engineering  feats  in  the  construction  of  roads  and  tunnels 
over  inaccessible  mountains,  had  suddenly  collapsed,  and  were  in 
full  retreat  before  the  Austro-German  forces.  The  arrival  of  the 
British  and  French  troops  stemmed  the  tide  of  the  Austrian  ad- 
vance and  the  Italian  Army  made  the  finest  recovery  in  history. 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Chemist  and  Druggist,  June  14,  1919. 
