Surgeon's Circular Letter

THE SURGEONS I J U L. - 1 9 5 2 V 0 L U M E - VII NUMBER - 7 A FAR EAST PERIODICAL. MEDICAL ,AND UNC OF ARMr APO 500 SEftTlftN#52HQ-fEC, MEDICAL SERVICES INFORMATION Volume VII - Number 7 Circular JULY 1952 Headquarters Far East Command Medical Section Letter APO 500 ADMINISTRATIVE Army Medical Service Observes 177th Anniversary, 27 July ..... 100 Distinguished Service Cross Awarded Posthumously AMEDS Soldier* . 101 Know Your Caduceus 101 Impregnation of Clothing With Miticides and Use of Insect Repellents 102 Malaria Therapy « • 102 Awards to Amy Medical Service Personnel 103 Recent Department of the Army and FEC Publications 105 ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE OBSERVES 177TH ANNIVERSARY,* 27 JULY In a letter to the Continental Congress dated 21 July the post. Surgeon General Church was replaced by- 1775, General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief John Morgan, MD, who, counselled by General Washing- of the Continental Army, requested an organized med- ton and with the assistance of his subordinate medical service for his amy of 20,000 men maintaining ical officers, drafted the first hospital regula- that "the lives and health of both officers and men tions. A chapter of these regulations on treatment so much depend on a due regulation of this depart- of the sick gave information which would still be ment." On 27 July 1775, the Continental Congress considered as good common sense. passed a bill providing for "an Hospital" or Hospi- tal Department, with personnel to include a chief The achievements of the Army Medical Service are surgeon, one apothecary and 23 subordinate person- many; its rosters are studded with the names of out- nel. standing physicians and pioneers in the field of medicine—Kelser, Beaumont, Waterhouse, Lovell, Vedder, The Hospital Department faced many and myriad diffi- Letterman, Hammond, Reed, Gorgas, Billings, Darnall. culties. They were called upon to serve in the war Brigadier General Raymond A. Kelser, besides discov- of 1812, for example, with a medical provision of ering a vaccine for the dread cattle disease, rinder- one surgeon and two assistants for each of the thir- pest, was responsible for determining the mode of teen additional regiments. In that war, as in the transmission of equine encephalomyelitis. Colonel Revolutionary War, surgical practice was at a mini- Edward B. Vedder discovered the cause of beriberi, mum. Anesthetics were not in use and blood-letting thereby giving a new lease on life to millions whose was still considered a cure-all. At that time, "the food consisted principally of rice. Colonel Vedder more blood expended the better the wounds of the vis- was also one of the leading research scientists in cera, provided life was not extinguished when the the field of deficiency diseases. Other outstand- hemorrhage had stopped," was the prevailing attitude ing contributors to the growth of Army medicine in- of surgeons. In both these wars medical service for cluded an army surgeon, Benjamin Waterhouse, who,in the sick was a greater problem than the care of the 1800, brought smallpox vaccine to the United States. wounded; there were more deaths from disease and From it grew the widespread practice of vaccination wound infection than from enemy action. which has practically removed smallpox from America. From this unpretentious beginning, lacking in the The year 1821 brought William Beaumont, one of the precedents and centralized control of medical facil- Army's most famous medical officers, to the fore- ities and limited by a demand for strict economy,the ground. Called on to treat a young half-breed who Hospital Department progressed to the present highly had been accidentally shot in the abdomen, Surgeon organized and coordinated scheme of military medical Beaumont took the patient to his own home where he service. The early discoveries, the application of nursed him back to health. However, the wound left practical sanitary measures and the medical practic- a fistula which never completely healed, thus enab- es of the Army Medical Service have not only pro- ling Beaumont to observe the process of digestion. longed the life of its own personnel but that of all people of the civilized world as well. In 1836, Army Surgeon General Joseph Lovell established a collection of medical books that later became known as the Surgeon General's Library. Still The first "Surgeon General" was Benjamin Church, MD, later it was changed to the Army Medical Library and and he carried the somewhat aweseme title of Direc- finally, this year, it became the Armed Forces Med- tor General and Physician-in-Chief of the Continen- ical Library. It has grown to be the greatest col- tal Army. In the same year of his appointment to lection of medical reference books in the country. 100 During the Civil War, Surgeon Jonathan Lotte man won Army Dental Corps and the Army Nurse Corps, and the prominence by devising the present day system for establishment of a surgical hospital at Washington speedy evacuation of the wounded; in 1862 Surgeon Barracks, forerunner of the present Walter Reed Army General.William A. Hammond established the Amy Med- Medical Center. ical Museum to house gross material, instruments and * other items of significance in medical history. To- Then there was Surgeon John S. Billings who pioneered day the Museum possesses over 5,000 specimens of in the study of the ill effects of overcrowding, and gross tissue and the largest collection of micro- Major Carl R. Darnall who originated the process of scopes in the world. The institution is the only purifying drinking water by liquid chlorination. The one of its kind in the world open to the public. application of Major Darnall's work is now world-wide in scope and probably has saved as many lives as any Perhaps the Amy Medical Service achievement best other medical achievement. known to the general public is the discovery by Maj- or Walter Reed and his associates of the mode of Today, Army Medical Service personnel are continuing, transmission of yellow fever in 1900. Major Reed's each in his own way, to make outstanding contribu- work was the foundation for Brigadier General Wil- tions to the field of medicine. A compilation and liam C. Gorgas whose work in preventive medicine evaluation of these contributions will, undoubtedly, made possible the construction of the Panama Canal. further the art of medical science. Whether in com- bat or out, they are dedicated to the task of safe- In the same decade, General Sternberg materially ad- guarding and restoring the health of the individual vanced the study of bacteriology in this country. soldier as the best means of "conserving America's He was also responsible for the organization of the fighting strength." DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS AWARDED POSTHUMOUSLY AMEDS SOLDIER For extraordinary heroism in action against the en- a medical aidman with Medical Company, 38th Infantry emy in Korea, an officer and three enlisted men re- Regiment, 2d Infantry Division, accompanied a force cently were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, assaulting an enemy-held hill near Pia-ri. Wounded posthumously, according to Eighth Army Order. One early in the attack and in great pain, Private Tren- of the enlisted men was a member of the Army Medi- holm forced himself to his feet and rendered aid to cal Service. two other wounded men. While attempting to evacu- ate the second man for further treatment, he was On September 12, 1951, Private Richard R. Trenholm, killed by a burst of enemy fire. KNOW YOUR CADUCEUS In the Amy of the United States the dess of health. While Aesculapius was treating a care and treatment of the sick and the patient one day a snake entered the tent and en- promotion of health generally has for twined about his walking stick, thus conferring up- many years been carried on under the on him the gift of wisdom. symbol or sign of the caduceus. The serpent was sacred to nearly all the gods, both Investigations indicate that the cadu- Egyptian and Grecian. It represented immortality ceus had its origin in civilizations or renovation of life and vigor, typified by the much earlier than the Greek and that it symbolized periodical change of its skin. In various places certain vague groups of mystic or magic processes the serpent represented knowledge and culture, whioh in the cult of prehistoric men were anterior shrewdness and wisdom, freedom from disease. to medicine, in our sense, but certainly inclusive of it. In the earlier Babalonian figurations the The caduceus, with entwined serpents, frequently ap- caduceus is not an emblem but a god in itselfj in peared on the title pages of medical books published others it is carried in the hand of gods or goddes- in the 16th Century. One of these printers used ses as a sign and symbol of supernatural power. the caduceus without the wings but a dove hovers This staff in its oldest form was a rod ending in overhead and the complete emblem includes a Greek two prongs entwined into a knot. inscriptions "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." This is perhaps the first in- Apollo, the Sun-god, carried a staff or magic wand stance in which the caduceus of Hermes is associa- which exercised influence over the living and the ted with medicine. The physician to King Henry dead. Apollo, first victor of the Olympic games, VIII was the first to employ the caduceus in his was not only a great athlete but was also god of the crest. healing art, "physician and seer," "health giver," "averter of evil," and "physician of the soul." In 1857 Army Regulations directed that the caduceus be part of the army insignia for hospital stewards.

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