Charles Smart

Alleged Army Medical Abuse.

Washington, D. C., August 21, 1900. To the Editor: —We have been reading recently in the daily press and medical journals about the shortcomings of the British Army Medical Department in Southern Africa. During the active progress of the war we heard nothing but words of praise for the devotion to duty of the Medical Department and its foresight in providing all that was needful for the care of the wounded hundreds of miles from the base of supplies. General officers, themselves wounded, testified to the admirable management which brought their wounded men from the field and transported them in comfort to the base hospitals at Cape Town. Kipling has told the story of one hospital train on its way to the front and thence back to the general hospitals with its load of disabled men. His brilliant description of the return trip conveys a sense of the restfulness and

The Medical Department of the Army.

Washington, D. C., August 27, 1898. To the Editor: —In theJournalof August 20, Wm. Cuthbertson, late Major and Surgeon of the First Illinois Cavalry, gives it as his opinion that the Medical Department of the Army is incompetent and inefficient, and he explains what he considers to be the causes of these alleged conditions and how they are to be remedied. Of all things literary I dislike a newspaper or journal controversy; but my thirty-six years of active service as an army surgeon will not permit me to be silent when I find in the columns of the Journal of our National Association a criticism of Army medical methods by one who, in every line of his published article, shows himself to have been incompetent for the position of regimental surgeon, on the holding of which he evidently bases his claim to criticise. He begins his attack by

THE IDENTIFICATION CARDS OF THE U. S. ARMY.

Every recruit enlisted in the U. S. Army, besides being examined as to his physical qualifications to undertake military duty, is subjected to a careful scrutiny for scars, moles, tattooings and other permanent marks on his person by which his identification may at any time be determined. These are recorded in their proper locality on a card bearing a front and back view, in outline, of the human figure. The card of each recruit, as soon as completed, is forwarded to the Surgeon-Generals Office, where it is compared with the cards of the deserters, ex-military convicts and other undesirable men that have been filed in the office during the past six years. Should the result of this comparison be favorable to the man, his card is then placed in an alphabetical file and there continues until the honorable termination of his service. The office of the Surgeon-General thus contains an