J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-99-04-03 on 1 July 1953. Downloaded from

142 Retrospect

force, much thought and consideration was' given to the method of tactical employment of field medical units, clearing of casualties, and so on. Of those with whom I was personally in touch, I feel that the names of H. E. R. J ames, William Macpherson and Charles Burtchaell should be recorded as having influenced thought on how the medical services could be of the greatest value to the army if we became involved in a European war. These men had read in detail the Commissions of Enquiry into the medical services which were appointed from the Crimea to the South African War. They were well acquainted with Otis on the American Civil War, and with all that was available on the existing medical organization of continental armies. Now officers of the Corps have 600 numbers of the Journal to see, in which they can find articles dealing with the changes in thought, the practical experi­ ences, which brought about the various changes, whether in administration or tactical employment of medical units in the field, and read of the results of the teachings of these men and their successors. It is no longer necessary to go back to the Crimean War! by guest. Protected copyright.

THE JOURNAL, 1903-1953

"The written word alone flouts destiny, Revives the past, and gives the lie to death." HELEN WADDELL: The Wandering Scholars.

"IT is surely much to be regretted, that notwithstanding the numerous wars . in which Britain has been engaged in all parts of the world, and the number .of well-educated, intelligent, and active medical officers who have been employed in those wars, the greater part of the knowledge acquired has hitherto been allowed to remain, and even to perish, with its possessors. The value of the information contained in the results of the few official details of the diseases of the army and http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ navy which have been published during the late war must increase this regret, and make us realize how much the general stock of medical knowledge might have been augmented had those enjoying similar opportunities with the authors of these collections been animated with an equal zeal for their profession." So wrote John Thomson, Regius Professor of Military Surgery in the Univers­ ity of Edinburgh, in his Report of Observations . .. in Belgium after . .. Waterloo (Edinburgh, 1816). A little later, J. G. van Millingen, in his Army Medical Officers' Manual upon Active Service (London, 1819), suggested the formatjon of

clinical societies among medical officers in the larger stations, the papers read on September 26, 2021 before them to be submitted to a central authority which would choose the best . of them for publication in an annual volume. This suggestion might have been expected to appeal to Sir J ames McGrigor, to complement the library and museum which he had already initiated, but apparently it did not, and in 1848, the Despatch (Vo!. I, p. 313, 20th November, 1848) comments: J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-99-04-03 on 1 July 1953. Downloaded from The Journal, 1903-1953 143

"The many admirable manuscripts which have from time to time been forwarded to the Medical Board Office by officers, the receipt of them has been merely officially acknowledged, and the contents either 'burked' or thrown into a dusty corner. .. The department-one of the first in the kingdom-has no 'Quarterly Transactions,' as we find emanating from the Royal Society, the Statistical or the Archeological. . .. But these things will never occur until root and branch-the thicket of stubble-be removed, and a fair field and cultivated soil replace the sandy desert-the dominion of the self-aggrandizing medical department." Again, in 1849, Henry Marshall,* the "Father and Founder of Military Medical Statistics" and a retired Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, published a seven-page pamphlett in which he pleaded for the establishment of a periodical of British military medicine, contrasting our lack of one with the practice of the medical departments of foreign armies. Sir James McGrigor had stimulated the production by officers of the Army Medica} Department of elegant atlases of anatomy and pathology, but he remained deaf to suggestions for the establish­ ment of a journal. It was, in fact, somewhat on the lines foreseen by van Millingen that military medical reporting first developed in Britain. In 1859 was begun the series of by guest. Protected copyright. Reports of the Army Medical Department, in which it became customary to print, in addition to the statistical tables, the reports of the Principal Medical Officers of expeditionary forces, and also independent papers on medical subjects, though Sir'William Taylor (Director-General, 1901-1904) entertained no high opinion of this means for the propagation of knowledge: " ... all communications, however great their interest, were consigned to the limbo of the Army Medical Department Report. Some lethal' influence seems to have lurked in the pages of that official publication, for everything that entered them was suffocated at birth and annihilated. No future existence was possible for anything overtaken by that misfortune.' , An independent commercial venture was the publication in 1864 by Messrs. J. & A. Churchill of Annals of Naval and Military Medicine, Vol. I, a collection of

extracts from the "mass of information scattered in bulky official papers and in a http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ variety of periodicals at home and abroad." The anonymous editor collected his material while he was on sick leave, and ,apparently no successor was found, for the first volume was also the last. In 1864, too, the staff of the Army Medical School had arrangements for the publication of a journal completed to the last detail, only to have them annulled by "old-fashioned officialdom and the rules and customs of the service," and Surgeon- Evatt's appeal in a pamphlet! published in 1885, drew no better response .

.. D.N.B. 36, 237; and John Brown's Horae Subsecivae (Edinburgh, 1858), chapter on "Dr. on September 26, 2021 Henry Marshal! and Military Hygiene." t "Suggestions for the Advancement of Military Medical Literature, with Observations on Military Hygiene."(No place, no date.) - -- t HA Proposal to form an 'Army Medical Institution' on the lines of the Royal Artillery Institu­ tion and the Royal Engineer-Institution." By Surgeon-Major G. H. J. Evatt. Woolwich, 1885. Printed for private circulation. J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-99-04-03 on 1 July 1953. Downloaded from

144 The Journal, ~ 903-1953

It remained for Sir William Taylor to add to the lasting obligation under which he placed every officer who has since served in the Corps, by founding the Journal. In the first number (July, 1903) he wrote "L'Envoi" for the new ven­ ture, and after describing its origins and defining its objects, he said: "It surely can be relied on that there will be no lack of either earnestness or enthusiasm; that not a single officer will forget his responsibility for the complete success. of the Journal." " As its first editor, he chose Major (later Sir) Robert Firth, Professor of Hygiene at the R.A.M. College, who, in his own words, had "a weakness for writing." Others must have thought it his strength, for although he edited only the first volume, he contributed wit and wisdom to our pages for the next quarter of a century. Despite the passage of fifty years, and the straitened circumstances which now surround the Journal, Firth laid his foundations so well that he would still recognize his handiwork in these pages. Firth was succeeded, for four years (1904-1908), by Colonel (afterwards Major-General Sir) David Bruce, one of the finest scientists who ever served the Corps. Some of the papers which he contributed and elicited have a lasting value in medical literature. by guest. Protected copyright. On Bruce's resignation, the Journal came into the hands of the man who was to rule it from before the first World War until well into the second-Major (later Colonel Sir) William Horrocks. From 1908 until 1941, for more than half the life of the Journal, he edited it critically and affectionately-he is said to have been reading manuscript for it on the day of his death; and though his crafts­ manship was apparent to none but his authors, the value of their writings was materially enhanced by his enlightened editing.' Any who would pay tribute in our jubilee year to his thirty-three years of devoted service in the editor's chair should turn back to our issue of February, 1941, and join with those whose . mourning was turned into a good day' in contemplation of his labours. *" Sir'William's place was hard to fill, but for the remainder of the war years, until 1945, it was handsomely filled by Colonel Lyle Cummins, an authority upon tuberculosis of world-wide reputation, who had come back from retirement http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ to work in the War Office, collating material for the medical history of the war. Colonel Cummins, as a serving officer, had been professor of pathology at the R.A.M. College, and his appointment maintained the regular alternation of editorship between hygienist and pathologist which, except for the five years of Colonel Cummins' successor, has obtained throughout the Journal's existence. Colonel Cummins, during the war years, served as no officer on the active list could have done as a stable focus for the Journal's activities, as indeed did Colonel G. W. Will, editor from 1945 to 1950. During this period of post-war decline, it would have been almost impossible to find a serving officer with the necessary qualifications who could be promised a on September 26, 2021 sufficiently long tenure of an appointment to make his selection as editor worth

• Elsewhere in this issue will be found"an engaging memoir of Sir William," generously contri­ buted by his son, Lieut.-General Sir , K.C.B., K.B.E., under whom many of us were proud to serve in the Western Desert or in Germany. J R Army Med Corps: first published as 10.1136/jramc-99-04-03 on 1 July 1953. Downloaded from The Journal, 1903-1953 145

while. In addition, Sir William Horrocks and Colonel Cummins had together founded a tradition of editorship by a retired officer. Colonel Will had to face unprecedented difficulties, due in part to the cessation of the grant of regular commissions during the war. Young officers were no longer encouraged to subscribe to the Journal as a matter of course, out of loyalty and as a continuing part of their training as military medical officers, while, by reasonofthe financial stringency, many old subscribers, living on ever-contracting pensions or with increasing commitments in an ever more expensive world, found themselves unable to continue their support. All the time costs were rising. Contributions, once flowing freely, were found with difficulty, for in a diminishing army bearing the heavy training burden which National Service created, officers were less inclined to devote their leisure to exacting literary disciplines. So it happened that not even Colonel Will's devoted efforts were sufficient to restore the Journal to its former prosperity. Colonel Will's successor, Lieut.-General Sir Treffry Thompson, during his two years of office, maintained the high literary standard, but financial stability seemed unattainable. The merging of the Journal in a joint publication for the medical branches of all three Services, Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, by guest. Protected copyright. was actively considered, only to be rejected. The possibility of completely dis­ continuing publication, which month by month, in peace and war, had never failed since July, 1903, was seriously contemplated. But other counsels prevailed. By issuing quarterly numbers, of a size strictly covered by income, and by effecting every possible economy in management, the Journal has survived to see, if not actively to celebrate, its fiftieth birthday. It is impossible, even if it were desirable, to sell the Journal in a commercial market. Its future is in the pockets of every serving officer, whether regular, short service, Territorial, A.E.R., or National Service, of our retired officers, and of those who in time of war have found enjoyment as well as the fulfilment of their duty in the R.A.M.C. Our readers know them, and they can help us. Laborare est orare: ora pro nobis. http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/ on September 26, 2021