THE MEDICAL SERVICE OF THE ARMY. RR THE EDITOR OF
TOR SPICT.LTOR".1
Sra,—Dr. Dawson Williams says in your issue for Janu- ary 25th that the real analogy of an Army medical officer is not with physicians and surgeons, but with medical
officers of health. He considers, therefOre, that Mr. Brodrick's Committee have shown a fundamental mis- conception of the functions of an Army Medical Corps I venture to dispute both these contentions. The main work of a medical officer of health is to carry out the provisions of the Public Health Acts, and I am assured by two well-known borough officers of health that most of their time is taken up with correspondence connected with litigation or with sub- jects that might lead to litigation. The Army doctor, on the other hand, has nothing to do with sanitary law. Food-supply. moreover, water-supply, and drainage are managed by other departments ; and, as a rule, his supervisory duties are of the slightest. In the higher ranks his duties are almost entirely administrative, and military rather than sanitary. The fact is that the work of the Army doctor is unique, and ranges over the whole sphere of medical practice. Mr. Brodrick's Committee recognised this fact, and laid it down in principle that the Army doctor should be considered to be a general practitioner with the additional training and duties of a military Commandant. He may spend all his early years as a physician (as is commonest), especially as a physician in tropical diseases ; he may be called on suddenly to under- take pure surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, or any speciality in medical work, The Reorganisation Committee decided, therefore, that an officer of the R.A.M.C. should have two periods of study, safeguarded by test examinations, with opportunities of reward for hard work, so as to renew and extend the broad foundations of his knowledge; that on becoming a Major he should also be enabled to take up some speciality, and on becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel he should show a minimum knowledge of administrative subjects, which henceforward become his chief . duties. It is due to Mr. Brodrick and his Committee that their broad con- ception of the objects of the Army Medical Service ghoul? be publicly recognised.—I am, Sir, &c., FEAtiete E. FaxmAlax.g.
89 Moore Street, Lennox Gardens, S.W.
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