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Normal Growth VI

Normal Growth

1913_1916

“It seems to me that too much time is given up to laboratory 

work in the School and not enough attention is paid to sanitary 

tactics.” 1

“The Old Soldier”

The years immediately prior to World War I were more significant for the number of 

commanding officers at Walter Reed than for additions to the physical plant. Colonel H.P. 

Birmingham returned from his southwestern assignment with the maneuver division to 

replace Colonel Richard, transferred to the Army Medical School. A fine figure of a man, 

veteran of the Indian Wars, he was called “The Old Soldier” by his friends.2

 Nervous, 

capable and exacting,3 he was quick-tempered; like Colonel Richards, he punctuated 

his speech with sharp and colorful expletives.4 An able administrator, 5 he tempered his 

military efficiency6 with kindness, his discipline with wit.7 Slender, of distinctive military 

bearing, well groomed to a dandified neatness, the pince-nez-equipped Birmingham could 

stare “the best of them” into an uncomfortable state of confusion, and few of the men 

called before him for infractions of discipline forgot his piercing blue eyes.

Sixteenth Street was as yet unopened, and within a few yards of Building No. 10, the 

flagpole, the hospital grounds were wooded and uncultivated as during the days of Jubal 

Early’s encampment. As he was an enthusiastic horseman, the neat Colonel rode with 

his children in the surrounding areas of Silver Spring and Takoma Park. The Birmingham children were the only juvenile members of the command, and their year at Walter 

Reed was an all-too-short idyll. Cameron’s Creek provided hideaways for book-loving 
100

Borden’s Dream

“The Old Soldier;” Col. H.P. Birmingham, 1914

VI

youngsters escaping household chores. And in spite of fatherly admonitions, unavoidable homework was always postponed for the hour-long trip in the “glass wagon,” the 

enclosed escort wagon which carried the little girls across town to the convent school. 

Happy and carefree, they had long since forgiven their stern parent for using them, 

somewhat unwillingly, as Major Russell’s laboratory subjects. Conditioned as they were 

to his moods, “Father,” in the seclusion of the home, was not an awesome figure, and 

they took especial delight in undermining his regal manners.

If his friends and contemporaries called Colonel Birmingham “The Old Soldier,” with 

mixed affection and respect, the hospital corpsmen at Walter Reed, as subordinates 

invariably do, called him “the old man.” 

One of the Birmingham children, unexpectedly hospitalized for appendicitis, 

overheard two of the corpsmen talking 

in the hall.

“Who you got in there?” said 

the first.

“The old man’s kid,”

said the other laconically.

“God pity them poor children,” 

said the other piously, to 

the later delight of all the 

Birmingham clan.8

Thus Colonel Birmingham, like 

Colonel Arthur, was a colorful character, and like his later successor, James D. 

Glennan, he was called a martinet.9

 To 

these three, one-time members of Army 

Examining Boards, perhaps more than 

to any other medical officers of their 

generation, is due credit for upholding 

the high admission standards of the 

Corps. Stony-hearted, Walter Reed 

had called some of the examineers on the 1902 Board,10 for without hesitation or 

compunction they failed unlikely candidates for commission on the preliminary 

admission examinations. Because of his long experience, sound military background 

and excellent judgment, Colonel Birmingham was frequently used as a trouble-shooter 

for the Medical Department. And as a complete antithesis to this spartan and outspoken 
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Normal Growth

Brigadier General Henry C. Fisher

VI

man, Sophy Burns, who succeeded Jane Molloy as Chief Nurse, was best known for 

her devotion to small details and to her church work.11

As early as 1778, venereally diseased officers were fined $10.00 and enlisted men $4.00, 

and War Department Rules and Regulations, published May 2, 1814 not only stopped their 

pay but deducted the price of all medicine used during treatment. As social concepts 

as well as therapy began to change, more responsibility for venereal disease instruction 

was placed on Army Commanders, as they were directly concerned with maintaining 

an effective troop strength. Consequently the Army Medical School investigative 

program, and the use of “606,” were especially important to the health of the Army. In 

1909 the Surgeon General issued a memorandum on the control of venereal disease,12

and as a preventive medicine factor, the prophylactic “K” packet was first sold in the 

Post Exchanges.

Under the provisions of General Order No. 17, WD 1912, military pay was still 

mulcted13 for known cases, a policy which may have contributed to its spread, for the 

average soldier could ill afford the deduction, and so many failed to report infections. 

In the Eastern Department, at least, the “K” packet was unpopular and the Surgeon 

General soon recommended distribution without cost — or that passes be 

restricted.14 As the venereal disease investigative program was pursued vigorously 

during this period, after publication of 

SGO Circular No. 10, Salversan, some 

Army hospital staffs began control studies; the first such work was actually done 

at Walter Reed on a group of twenty 

carefully selected patients, with a report 

made in the “Boston Medical and Surgical 

Journal” in 1911.

There was little new construction at 

Walter Reed during 1913, except a Post 

Exchange opened on August 1, in the 

basement of the barracks; the Quartermaster’s landscaping project15 was one of 

the highlights of the year, for twenty-six 

Norway maples, twenty-eight American 

elms, nine white pines, twenty-eight 

evergreens, two dogwood and one Japanese maple tree were planted. In addition to the 

gardener, the small Quartermaster Detachment included three teamsters, all Privates 

1st Class; a boiler fireman and an overseer in charge of the stables. The Hospital Corps 

detachment was quite as representative of skills, for it included a printer, gardener, 

painter, trumpeter, elevator attendants, kitchen police, special dietitians and a night 
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Borden’s Dream

watchman. Moreover, there were, during 1913, only five of its members assigned to day 

and two to night nursing duty, one to the operating room, one to the laboratory and 

five as wardmasters.16

The Walter Reed detachment seemingly provided the necessary number of men for 

all the institutional requirements. Still, times were changing and by 1914 the Surgeon 

General was proposing a reorganization of the Corps in order to draw into it the men 

of intelligence necessary to perform the specialized duties of “anesthetists, pharmacists, 

surgical, laboratory and sanitary assistants.” Discouraged over the general manpower 

situation, he expressed the opinion that men nurses and cooks could get better pay and 

hours outside the Army.17

Business As Usual

The slow physical growth of the institution was neither accelerated nor retarded 

during Colonel Birmingham’s short tenure. Building No. 13, a twelve-bed isolation 

hospital, familiarly called The Pest House,

18 was opened November 13, 1913, only 

three months after Colonel Henry C. (“Pinky”) Fisher assumed command. The 

new hospital commander made no change in the organization of the professional 

services, still divided into the broad classes of medicine and surgery, nor did the 

fact that eighty-one, or approximately ten per cent, of the 817 admissions during 

1913 were for injuries stir him to comment. In preparing the Annual Report for 

that year, the need for proper Post housing for the Army Medical School students 

was reaffirmed, and he noted that “a satisfactory start has been made toward the 

establishment of a general hospital that shall be a credit to the Army. The work 

should be continued along the plans already made.” 19

“Pinky” Fisher was a quiet and ultra-conservative man, as a result of which some 

of his associates considered him indecisive as well as unimpressive. He rarely antagonized anyone, which was certainly to his credit, seldom refused a reasonable 

request and since these characteristics were contrary to the traditional concept 

of a military man as a fire-breathing grenadier, some believed he made many of 

his decisions by default.20 As he was shy and withdrawn, others among his contemporaries credited him with a meager knowledge of medicine.21 In contrast, 

some who knew him well objected violently22 to allegations that he was “mousey” 

and unspectacular.23 Nor would they concede that because he was hard-working, 

although apparently without imagination or haste, he lacked leadership.24 Perhaps 

the very fact that he worked without unseemly haste, adhered strictly to Army 

regulations25 and made no demands for a prima donna role retained him in the good 

graces of some of the most influential men in the corps.26 At any rate, regardless of 

varying appraisals of his personality, his service record was excellent, he was held 

in high esteem and appears to have led an exemplary life as soldier. In May 1914 

he was transferred from Walter Reed for a three-year tour of duty in the Surgeon 

General’s Office.

VI
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Normal Growth

Enigmatic and self-contained, “Pinky” Fisher had married late in life, choosing a 

congenial companion of similar type. Socially, little was seen of the Fisher family, for 

they did not encourage the trivial social activities so necessary for entertainment at 

the isolated military stations.27 Further, the Colonel refused to attend formal dances, 

allegedly because he objected to having other men’s arms around his wife.28 Regardless 

of their temperamental preference for seclusion, the Fishers always had satisfactory 

military medical assignments, especially the coveted, and in “Pinky’s” case prolonged, 

detail as Chief Health office in Panama. Later, from July 1, 1925 until October 5, 1929, 

as a Brigadier General, he served as Commandant of the Army Medical Center, the 

third officer in the institutional lineage to fill the role of both hospital commander 

and dominie.29 Again, he progressed to the Surgeon General’s Office, where he 

served with distinction as Assistant Surgeon General in the closing years of the 

Ireland administration. 

Old-timers delight in recounting an episode from the Fishers’ post-military life. As 

the General was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, graduated with the class of 

‘86, Central High School, Washington, D.C.,30 and having received in turn the AM and 

MD degrees from George Washington University, it was only natural that he choose 

to retire in the familiar surroundings. Thus he selected for his homesite a high lot in 

Arlington Heights, Virginia, a plot owned by the congregation of a Negro church. No 

other location was acceptable. Strong in his determined isolation, he finally succeeded 

in purchasing the location, in spite of protests from the noisy church-goers. There he 

retired in splendor in a two-story house which, although it was none of their business, 

his friends believed too large and too pretentious for elderly unsociable people. Unfortunately the land venture did not include an option on the surrounding lots in this then 

unrestricted and nearly rural area. Without difficulty, it seems, the congregation relocated 

in close proximity to the Fisher mansion, where its hearty hymn-singing plagued the 

remaining years of this “...quiet, Christian gentleman (who was) very efficient.” 31

Additions and Subtractions

Ward “A,” the west wing of Building No. 1, consisting of a basement recreation 

room and a first floor ward, was ready for occupancy by April 6, 1914.32 Completed on 

December 14, 1914, the kitchen and mess, added to the north side of the Main Building, 

not only provided much-needed additional space but eliminated some of the odors of 

cookery from the hospital proper. A year later, when the new concrete roadway was 

completed in this area, the servicing of wagons was both easier and cleaner. Moreover, 

the roadway diverted much surface drainage that formerly washed directly toward and 

partly through the basement.33 A hydrotherapeutic plant was opened in 1914, with the 

treatments given by Hospital Corpsmen receiving extra duty pay from the Hospital 

Fund rather than the government. The term insanity was becoming less popular as a 

specific diagnosis than heretofore, and on January 1, the Surgeon General invoked a 

change in medical nomenclature. Mental alienation34 was a sufficiently broad diagnosis 

VI
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Borden’s Dream

to cover such conditions as mental defectiveness, constitutional psychopathic state, 

hypochondriasis and nostalgia. When Ward “B,” counterpart of Ward “A,” was opened 

May 8, 1915 and attached to the eastern end of the Main Building, it provided two 

rooms for housing insane patients and two rooms for cooks, not that there was any 

correlation between affliction and occupation. The insane wards were much needed, 

for of the 1175 patients admitted to Walter Reed in 1915, 44.7 per cent of the enlisted 

men and 24 per cent of the officers were diagnosed as mental cases.35

An enlargement to the nurses’ residence was completed in April 1915, providing 

space for six additional nurses. The attendance of female nurses was becoming increasingly important, for “...In keeping with modern tendencies, specialization (had) 

developed....” 36 This tendency was viewed with considerable alarm by Dr. Fielding H. 

Garrison, successor to Dr. Robert Fletcher as editor of the Surgeon General’s great 

Index-Catalogue. Dr. Garrison, with his ready purview of the world, was concerned 

because The Journal of the American Medical Association, whose editor had once told him it 

was designed to meet the needs of the country practitioner, had become so “splendidly 

scientific” that this group was becoming estranged.37 The Medical Department, Dr. Garrison included, viewed the trend toward specialization in terms of physicians’ services, 

but it was destined to affect the collateral branch fully as much. Of the total inpatient 

census, 15 per cent were women requiring medical care and 15 per cent were women 

requiring surgical care. No females were then admitted to Walter Reed for mental or 

venereal disease, recognized afflictions of the troops, nor did this hospital’s “nearness 

and convenience to a metropolis and the monotony of sickness make for derelictions 

in the way of drink (as) by too many Hospital Corpsmen and (male) patients.” Although 

female patients showed marked sobriety, forty-eight required professional attention 

of a type peculiar to women, for the surgical staff performed forty-four gynecological 

operations and delivered four infants.38

The aggregate cost of general administration per diem, per patient, in 1915, exclusive of subsistence, was $4.06, with a total cost of $138,243.77 for the year. There were 

other unaccounted costs, however, such as the extra pay for the hydrotherapist met 

from the Detachment fund, and the pay of maids working on the women’s wards. Such 

costs troubled the commanding officer, for he objected to subsidizing the incumbents 

in these positions from the special welfare fund.39

There appears to have been no general shortage of trained nurses at this time, for 

the Surgeon General reported more applications for Army Nurse Corps assignments 

than vacancies.40 The hospital was still so small at this time that nursing duties could 

hardly have been as arduous as described. Still, in times of stress, there was an insufficient general allotment of nurses to provide for their own sickness and for their 

leaves of absence. Moreover, as the units mobilizing on the Mexican Border required 

nurses with military experience, five of the Regular Army nurses at Walter Reed were 

replaced by five contract nurses, the first non-military or strictly civilian nurses to be 

assigned since the “matron” was dropped from the personnel roles.41

VI
105

Normal Growth

“Go West, Young Man”

William Crawford Gorgas, by then 

an international expert on sanitation 

because of his position as Chief Sanitary 

Office of the Panama Canal project, 

became Surgeon General on January 

16, 1914. On April 24, he telegraphed 

his former Assistant Chief Sanitary Officer,42 and one-time manager of Ancon 

Hospital, Colonel John L. Phillips, and 

offered him the detail as Chief Surgeon, 

base line of communications,43 an excellent position in case of war. This potentially excellent position was refused as 

Phillips preferred to command Walter 

Reed, where he reported as “Pinky” 

Fisher’s relief on May 12.

Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on April 1, 1859, Colonel Phillips attended the University of North Carolina for 

two years and the University of Virginia for one year. In 1882 he received his medical 

diploma from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. The chairman of his 

faculty had attested to the fact that young Phillips was diligent, studious and made the 

best use of his time.44 Son of the Solicitor General of the United States, on October 

29, 1883, he applied to Robert Todd Lincoln, Secretary of War, for appointment as 

Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army, stating both his family and academic credentials. 

The preliminary appointment procedures were apparently handled without undue 

bureaucratic delay, and by November 19, 1883, the young doctor was subscribing to the 

usual oath whereby prospective officers declared themselves to be mentally and physically sound.45 In accordance with established Medical Department policy he was sent 

west for his first station, the detail to include two four-year assignments followed by a 

two-year assignment in the East.46

Six years later rather than eight, his father requested the Secretary of War, Redfield 

Proctor, to have his son reassigned to Governor’s Island, New York, stating that the 

President had given his permission.47 The letter followed the customary course through 

the interested divisions and to the Surgeon General’s Office. On January 15, 1890, Surgeon 

General John Moore declined to make any reassignments which would penalize other 

officers.48 Nevertheless, young Phillips was relocated from Camp Crawford, Colorado, 

to the Oklahoma Territory in November 1890, and although he requested service at 

the front during the Spanish-American War, he was first ordered from Walla Walla, 

Washington, to Alcatraz Island, California, for post duty, before the order was amended 

Colonel John L. Phillips and daughter, Frances; 

Panama, about 1912

VI
106

Borden’s Dream

and he was sent east to Camp Alger, Falls Church, Virginia, and thence to Greenville, 

North Carolina, as Chief Surgeon of the 2nd Division, 2nd Army Corps.49

While John L. Phillips was apparently not one of the small group of Ireland intimates, nor had he earned a distinguished place50 among the pioneer scientists of the 

Army Medical School, he filled one of the most useful and probably satisfactory roles 

permitted the peacetime Army doctor — that of post surgeon and thereby the family 

physician. By November 1902, less than a year before Lt. General A.R. Chaffee was 

sent to Washington as understudy for the position of Chief of Staff,51 he requested that 

Captain Phillips be assigned as attending Surgeon at Governor’s Island, New York, as 

he had charge of Mrs. Chaffee’s case.52

A large rather heavy-set man,53 strangers thought the quiet-appearing Army doctor shy and54 somewhat melancholy.55 Intimates, and especially some friends of his 

young daughter, recalled him as kindly, gentle and humorous but a lonely man.56 He 

reported for duty at Walter Reed on May 12, 1914, but on January 15, 1915 he suffered 

a severe attack of gout, accompanied by renal complications. By February 2, 1915, 

he was undergoing treatment at the Army and Navy General Hospital, the Medical 

Department’s special hospital for rheumatic diseases. His prognosis for a permanent 

cure was considered unfavorable.57 He did, however, return to duty at Walter Reed 

on April 7, 1915, although far from well. During the evening of September 18, Colonel 

Phillips fell from the second floor elevator shaft at Walter Reed,58 incurring several 

fractured ribs, severe contusions on the right side of the trunk and pelvis and, more 

serious, a fractured kidney. As an interim measure, the Chief of the Medical Service 

and Executive Officer, Major Percy M. Ashburn, assumed command of the hospital. 

The renal complications undoubtedly retarded the general recovery, and as he was still 

unwell after a four-month sick leave, Colonel Phillips was carried as sick in quarters 

for an additional six weeks.

All of the officers who served on the Panama Canal project were presumed to have 

undergone grueling experiences, and so in order to compensate them properly for their 

sacrifices, the Congress passed a law permitting voluntary and discretionary retirement 

in a grade higher than their Regular Army grade.59 This privilege could have been Colonel Phillips’ had he so desired. Instead he died unexpectedly on May 22, 1916, during a 

solitary walk along Cameron’s Creek.

The chain of command now took a sudden dip toward youth, for Ashburn, the interim commander, became commanding officer in fact, the first and only time in the 

history of the hospital that a major held the post on permanent assignment. Quiet, 

introverted and scholarly,60 he was especially interested in tropical diseases. However 

able in his own field, he was not acknowledged by Army men as the “command” type. 

A versatile and prolific writer on military medical topics, he became, by some strange 

anomaly 61of circumstance, the first commandant of the Medical Field Service School, 

opened at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1920, when the field training program was separated from the clinical.62

VI
107

Normal Growth

The hospital, including the new basement wards, had a capacity of approximately 

180 beds by 1916, with an additional seventeen beds in the isolation building. Moreover, 

in case of emergency, at least one hundred patients could be housed temporarily in 

the detachment barracks. The number of patient days increased by twenty-three per 

cent during the year, making the accommodations for officers, women and others on 

officer status inadequate. As a result of the frequent shifting of patients, the hospital 

commander noted both discomfort and dissatisfaction.

There were other causes for complaint, for of the eleven Medical Officers and two 

Dental Officers then on duty two families had quarters on the Post. Among the utilitarian services the stables needed concrete flooring for easier cleaning and to prevent 

fly breeding. The unsightly coal sheds, a source of complaint for many years, were in 

need of repair or replacement. A proper entrance was needed on Georgia Avenue with 

a waiting pavilion for streetcar passengers. The hospital grounds needed grading, draining and the roads surfacing. In spite of minor administrative inadequacies listed by 

the commanding officer of the hospital, Army personnel were becoming increasingly 

confident that the professional staff was 

one of the best in the East. Consequently 

the hospital was becoming something of 

a popular resort, and military patients 

spoke with pride of having been “out to 

Walter Reed.”

Perhaps the strain of urban life or the 

prospect of a war began to tell on Army 

wives about this time, or the pleasant 

prospect of having a safe place to restrain 

them encouraged busy husbands, but 

whatever the cause, 19.2 per cent of the 

fifty mental cases admitted in 1916 were 

women. Of the remaining members, 22.4 

per cent were officers; 32.5 per cent were 

enlisted men and 32.2 were male civilians.63 Wards “A” and “B” were already 

too small and two-storied additions were 

being considered.

There had been, since August 1913, 

commanding officers, and among the nurses changes were more frequent than otherwise, 

for many stayed at Walter Reed only long enough to receive a general sort of orientation training. Miss Estelle Hine, one of the first three nurses reporting to Walter Reed 

on June 21, 1911, returned on May 23, 1914 as Chief Nurse. Tall, angular and a strict disciplinarian, she managed the nurses’ mess economically by reducing the food servings. 

According to her hungry charges even the mantel clock protested the sparse meals and 

VI

1915, Colonel Percy M. Ashburn; Post Commander, 

September 19, 1915 – October 5, 1916
108

VI Borden’s Dream

instead of striking, pled in a tired and hungry voice for “coffee-coffee-coffee.” 64 Handsome, quiet and meticulous, Miss Hine was considered a superior nurse. She was quite 

artistic; as she had some knowledge of interior decorating she was frequently sent to 

new Posts to open quarters for the nurses.65 Like others, her stay at Walter Reed was 

short. Elizabeth Reid, her successor, was a large, stern and unimaginative woman.66

The complete antithesis of Miss Hine, she had a taste for delicate cuisine and was 

herself an excellent cook. A splendid executive and strict disciplinarian, she held her 

subordinates accountable for any infractions of the rules.67 Fortunately she held no 

grudges and attempted no reprisals.68

The Surgeon General sent military medical observers to Europe as early as 1914, for 

the Balkan Wars were exciting new interest in mobilization planning. Under authority 

of the National Defense Act of 1916, Colonel Kean was assigned as Director General 

of Military Relief for the American National Red Cross and began at once to assemble 

mobile hospital units for overseas shipment, as assistance to beleaguered countries. In 

the event of American participation the units would be on hand, ready for use. As the 

War Department was not in an active state of preparedness, this was the best effort 

which some military medical planners could devise for meeting an unexpected emergency. Miss Delano had resigned from the Army Nurse Corps in 1912 to devote her 

life to Red Cross work. As part of her nursing she had listed a roster of reserve nurses 

willing to serve with the Armed Forces in time of war. And so, as during her assignment 

as the Superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps, she was again associated with her old 

friend, Colonel Kean. She was interested in principles rather than politics, but these two 

were in complete agreement on health and medical policies, and together they made a 

formidable team in upholding standards for Medical Department nursing personnel.

While international events were accumulating with the rapidity of storm clouds, 

personnel problems were besetting Major Ashburn, who had begun to feel the administrative pinch of trying to maintain business as usual, but with a fluid staff. As if it 

were not trial enough to have the doctors and nurses changing rapidly, he encountered 

personnel problems in the enlisted detachment for “the character of recruits received 

during the year was below normal; many are very young and irresponsible, others are 

hard drinkers, and still others (seemed) incorrigible.” 69

There were few permanent changes or additions to the institution during this last 

pre-war period. The controversy over credit for the work of the Yellow Fever Commission had subsided, but the Congress had not yet authorized a suitable memorial.

General Gorgas had ordered a posthumous portrait of the scientist Reed, to grace 

the foyer of the hospital,70 for which the artist, selected by Mrs. Reed, was charging 

$550.00, including the frame.71 A Major Crosby P. Miller of the Quartermaster Corps 

served as stand-in, and the features were painted from old photographs. The artist 

believed Mrs. Reed, her daughter and “others” approved the work and informed the 

Surgeon General that she was “proud and highly pleased to have been able to succeed 

in obtaining such a perfect likeness....” 72
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Normal Growth

Major Walter Reed, 1851–1902 

VI
110

VI Borden’s Dream

Arthur, who was something of an artist himself, exploded forcefully to the young 

Charles R. Reynolds, one of the original staff members at the hospital “...for God’s sake, 

have you seen this oil painting of Reed? A drunken cow could paint a better picture with 

her tail.” (Ltr, Maj Gen C. R. Reynolds, M.C., ret., to writer, 21 March 1952.)

The picture was hung in due time, but Colonel Kean, busy man that he was, had 

other ideas regarding the likeness and noted thoughtfully:

I went with the Surgeon General to see the full length portrait of Walter 

Reed at the Walter Reed Hospital, which the Surgeon General had... 

painted by a woman recommended by Mrs. Reed.... We agreed that it 

was a bum job. He suggested that it might be improved by cutting off the 

legs and making a half length of it! 73

And so it was altered, in military parlance — according to directives.

The Academic Emphasis

Administration of the Army Medical School, like that of the hospital, changed little 

during Charles Richard’s assignment. Considerably more class time was spent on clinical 

microscopy and bacteriology and sanitary chemistry than on other subjects. The classes 

continued to have clinics at the hospital, but medicine and surgery were presented on 

alternate weeks. Actually, the course in military surgery was didactic rather than practical, with the lectures on gunshot, sword, saber and bayonet wounds well illustrated by 

“...lantern slides, skiagraphs, and experimental gunshot wounds on the cadaver.” 74 First 

Lieutenant George R. Callander of the Medical Reserve Corps earned the Sternberg 

Medal in 1913, but a quarter of a century later he was better known as the Medical 

Department’s only wound ballistics expert than a bacteriologist.

Some lectures and demonstrations on “psychiatrics” were given at St. Elizabeth’s, 

The Government Hospital For the Insane, but the series of special lectures delivered by 

distinguished members of the Medical Reserve Corps showed a decided trend toward 

surgical interests. As more in keeping with the professional reputation of its lecturers, 

effective January 25, 1913, the Secretary of War authorized a change in faculty titles from 

instructor and assistant instructor to professor and assistant professor.75

This was a period of expanding opportunities for medical officers, and in 1912–1913 

they were engaged in various extra-curricular activities such as flood relief work in the 

Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and as observers in the Balkan Wars. Major Russell, of 

the Army Medical School faculty, had a temporary assignment in Porto Rico with Lt. 

Colonel Kean to investigate an outbreak of bubonic plague, and Captain J.F. “Dusty” 

Siler began his life-time research work with an investigation of pellagra. Of approximately eighty-one articles prepared by medical officers and approved for publication 
111

Normal Growth VI

by the Surgeon General’s Office, only twenty-four were on military medical rather 

than clinical subjects. Of the twenty-four, eight were by Captain Louis C. Duncan, the 

budding military medical historian.76

Too few para-typhoid cases were reported during the year to justify preparation of 

a mixed strain of vaccine for special use or to necessitate any change in the highly 

acceptable typhoid vaccine which the Army Medical School prepared for distribution 

to other government agencies.77 The Wasserman reaction was then as satisfactory as 

could be achieved in that laboratory and the faculty believed the time had come for a 

general survey on the prevalence and distribution of syphilis in the Army. By 1915, when 

Vedder’s work on syphilis was published as SGO Bulletin No. 8, some 10,000 Wasserman 

reactions had been recorded.

Colonel Richard wanted to increase the number of students at the School, as well as 

to erect buildings at Walter Reed in order to use the clinical advantages of the hospital 

while training students in the practical aspects of hospital administration.78 Inasmuch 

as the School served as the central laboratory for the Department of the East, thereby 

performing all of the more complicated laboratory procedures for the hospital, the Commandant’s proposals had definite substance. Further, the Builder’s Exchange Building, 

occupied so joyously only four years previously, was now deemed unsatisfactory because 

of high rent, noise and the poor state of repair.

604 Louisiana Ave.; Home of Army Medical School 1916 –1923
112

VI Borden’s Dream

Improved X-ray procedures, which became more apparent as the need for clinical 

care of the peacetime Army personnel gained importance, came into the limelight 

during the eighteenth session, October 1, 1913–June 1, 1914, when Captain Arthur C. 

Christie published A Manual of X- ray Technique. This was an especially significant test, 

for in addition to the officers, a few carefully selected non-commissioned officers of 

the Hospital Corps were being trained each year.79 Dentistry, still a technical rather 

than a professional ally, received a boost when First Aid Dentistry was prepared by Dental 

Surgeon E.P.R. Ryan and published by P. Blackstone’s Sons; for good measure, the War 

Department purchased 122 copies.

The change in nomenclature from the stark term insanity to mental alienation was 

probably more significant to the faculty and students of the School than to the maintenance of exact clinical records in the hospitals, for it signified the beginning of a 

changing perspective in the treatment of mental disease, for which there was then too 

little in the way of specific therapy. Although on occasion the Surgeon General detailed 

medical officers for special study of mental disease, this later popular specialty was not 

especially interesting to the Army doctors of the period, and was considered an incidental 

subsection of medicine and as part and parcel of the total clinical evaluation. There may 

have been less disease per population ratio at this time, or less self exploitation in the 

discussion of maladjustments, for personnel counselling and psychoanalysis were not 

encouraged. Patients either lived with their fantasies or were “put away.” A diagnosis 

of mental disease carried a social stigma and alienists were shunned, for this was before 

the days when the psychoanalysts had become a popular human crutch and personal 

maladjustments were accepted parlor topics.

Dr. William A. White of the Government Hospital For the Insane lectured to the Army 

Medical School students, some of whom may have pursued independent investigations of 

their own. In 1914, for instance, with war just around the corner, the class was stimulated 

to new thought by clinical demonstrations on the various symptoms of mental disease; 

lectures on dementia praecox and syphilitic diseases of the brain and cord; the usual 

mental diseases found in the military service, including those most frequently observed 

during war... “and the general effect of war in producing mental disease.” 80 Perhaps as a 

consequence, the Surgeon General appointed a board to investigate the reclassification 

of general military prisoners... “with special reference to mental alienation.” 81

While not of immediate significance in the Army Medical School or Walter Reed 

Hospital, in August 1914, Major Joseph H. Ford was detached as a military observer in 

Europe, to study the hospital corps organization of the continental armies. Meanwhile, 

other Medical Department officers were studying and evaluating the increased use of 

motor ambulances in modern warfare. Moreover, a board was appointed to consider 

revision of the soldier’s first aid packet, with the introduction of ampules of iodine.

In October 1915 Colonel Arthur replaced Colonel Richard as Commandant of the 

Army Medical School. In 1916 General Gorgas called attention to the School’s unusually 

successful year under Arthur’s management and the special emphasis on medico-military 
113

Normal Growth VI

subjects. As no approval had been obtained for a new building at Walter Reed, and as 

the old one was outmoded as well as outgrown, 604 Louisiana Avenue was selected as 

the new home of the Army Medical School.

Evidence of Changes to Come

The School and hospital functions were spiritually if not physically identified, but the 

functional ties with the Army Medical Museum and Library,82 included as an essential 

part of a medical center by both Surgeon General Hammond and Dr. Borden,83 became 

more remote after the School moved to the Builders’ Exchange Building on Thirteenth 

Street. The relocation left the Museum, which had long since outgrown the Hammond 

concept of its function as a collection de guerre as it had collected pathological items 

at an amazing rate, and the Surgeon General’s Library in possession of the increasingly 

shabby building at Seventh and B Southwest. Both institutions were invaluable to the 

Medical Department blood and bone of its research and teaching program. 

Dr. Billings’ (Dr. John Shaw Billings) achievement in creating the Index-Catalogue 

had maintained him, in the period from 1870–1890, both at home and abroad, as the 

best-known American physician, and his personal reputation had brought considerable fame to the Library. In 1876 Billings alluded to the Army collection as a national 

medical library when publishing his Fasciculus, a name which the editor of The Nation

warned might enable the Congress “to bring it under the control of politics,” of which 

it then was entirely free.

In 1892 and again in 1901, Congress made the collection available to the civilian 

medical profession. It is especially interesting, therefore, that in the late nineties, during 

the real dawn of scientific medicine, that an unsuccessful attempt was made to annex 

the Army collection to the Library of Congress.84 The American Medical Association 

began expanding its own publishing and indexing activities at about the same time. 

Dr. Fletcher had some difficulty in securing funds for publishing the Index Medicus 

and from 1900 to 1902 suspended the activity. By 1914 an insurgent movement had 

developed to assign the Army collection to the Library of Congress, largely defeated by 

Congressman Lloyd, of Missouri, with the open support of the AMA. Dr. Garrison had a 

well established academic feud under way with Dr. Simmons, editor of the Journal of the 

American Medical Association, with whom he had disagreed85 over the kind and number 

of journals that should be indexed and to whom he voiced objection to the AMA’s lack 

of encouragement to smaller medical journals then struggling for existence. It is more 

than probable that the movement to attach the Surgeon General’s Library to the Library 

of Congress stems from the competition between the two organizations in regard to 

indexing and publications, for the Surgeon General’s Library had, for over thirty years, 

performed under military direction and with the support of military funds, a function 

properly chargeable to the medical profession-at-large. There was, however, definite competition between the AMA-sponsored “Guide to Current Medical Literature,” designed 

as a ready reference for busy physicians, and the Army-created-Army-sponsored Index 
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VI Borden’s Dream

Medicus. Later, after the AMA absorbed the Index-Medicus, the great Index-Catalogue 

became the professional bone of contention which deprived the Army Medical Center, 

outgrowth of the Walter Reed General Hospital, of the Library. 

The political hiatus gained the attention of the Secretary of War, Lindley Garrison, 

who at first supported the transfer to the Library of Congress, for, when the Army 

Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year 1915 was under discussion, the Senate Military 

Affairs Committee proposed an amendment, outgrowth of an extemporary suggestion 

made during the hearings, to which he assented, that is, that on or before January 1, 1915 

the transfer be effected. In the meantime Army protagonists secured enough support 

to defeat the proposed action. On April 6, 1914, while the bill was still in conference, 

both the Secretary of War and the Senate and House Committees withdrew their proposals. Thus amendment 148 480 did not become law in the Act of April 27, 1914 (Army 

Bill for 1915). The affair was minimized, and probably as an attempt to establish in the 

eyes of American medicine the fact that the Library served the public as well as the 

military interests, the Surgeon General’s great collection of scientific and professional 

books was more frequently referred to as the National Medical Library, in spite of The 

Nation’s earlier warning.

Victory was conceded to the Missourians, but like the Battle of Fort Stevens, the 

1914 attempt to strip the Medical Department of its most famous possession was only 

a skirmish.86 The plans for a complete Army Medical Center were still so nebulous, 

however, that the lobbying activities of acquisitive groups were of little or no concern 

to the small professional staff at Walter Reed General Hospital, still thought of as out 

in the country rather than in the city proper.

Under the National Defense Act of 1916, the Dental Corps, an integral part of the 

Army since March 3, 1911, was reorganized and the three-year probationary contract 

required for eligibility as dental surgeons was abandoned. The Veterinary Corps functions were separated from the Quartermaster Corps, with the Corps established as an 

integral part of the Medical Department. Among other changes and authorizations, the 

government was allowed to provide storage space for Red Cross medical supplies and 

to permit erection of Red Cross storehouses and buildings on military reservations.87

Each of these provisions in some way later affected military hospital management.

Because of the increased use of motor vehicles the commanding officer at Walter 

Reed advocated an additional Hospital Corps grade for chauffeur-sergeant and blamed 

the poor quality of the recruits on the inadequate military pay. The nine medical officers 

and nurses on duty during 1916 cared for 1175 patients, apparently without overexertion. While the interchangeable duties of clinician and professor were not allowed to 

interfere with the proper care of the sick, the hospital commander believed the detail of 

officers to work outside the institution interfered with their administrative duties such 

as “officers-of-the-day duty, instruction of the Hospital Corps, (assignment as members 

of) disability boards, consultation boards and committees and attendance at Journal 

Club and clinical meetings,” all of which were necessary administrative functions.88
115

Normal Growth VI

Officers at the Army Medical School made the long streetcar ride out to Walter Reed to 

perform professional and officer-of-the-day duties, that is, as a resident on call during 

the night hours. On the other hand, Colonel Arthur complained because his students 

did not spend at least two weeks in a military camp, which could be at Walter Reed. 

He agreed that laboratory work was important, but he seemed especially apprehensive 

because medical officers were not learning to care for themselves in camp, the details 

of camp sanitation or their general duties in the field.89 Arthur, the old campaigner, 

believed it time to prepare for a war!

References 1. William H. Arthur, Report of the Commandant, Army Med. Sch; Annual Rpt TSG...1916, 

pg 200.

2. Interview with Brig. Gen. J.R. Kean, MC, Ret., April 17, 1950; Major Gen. Morrison C. 

Stayer, MC. Ret., June 10, 1950.

3. Interview with Brig. Gen. Frank Keefer, MC, Ret., April 20, 1950.

4. Interview with Maj. Gen. S.U. Marietta, MC, Ret., April 25, 1950.

5. Interview with Col. James F. Hall, MC, Ret., April 17, 1950; Marietta interview, op cit.

6. Interview with Col. James M. Phalen, MC, Ret., April 19, 1950; Hall interview, op cit; Keefer 

interview, op cit.

7. Kean interview, op cit.

8. Interview with Miss Clara Birmingham and sister, Mrs. Everett Harman, Jan. 24, 1951.

9. Phalen interview, op cit.

10. Ltr Walter Reed to W.C. Gorgas, Feb. 4, 1902 (quoted) W.C. Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama, 

NY & London, D. Appleton & Company, 1915, pg 105.

11. Interview Lt. Col. Jessie M. Braden, ANC, Ret., June 26, 1950.

12. Memorandum by TSG Torney, 25 Jan. 1909.

13. Became a law by Act of 27 April 1914 (38 Stat 353).

14. Annual Rpt TSG...1914, pg 56, 57.

15. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1913.

16. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1913.

17. Annual Rpt TSG...1914, pg 12, 13.

18. Birmingham interview, op cit.
116

VI Borden’s Dream

19. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1913.

20. Stayer Interview, op cit.

21. Keefer, Huggins, Stayer interviews, op cit.

22. Interview Brig. Gen. Albert G. Love, MC, Ret., Feb. 13, 1951.

23. Phalen interview, op cit.

24. Love interview, op cit.

25. Marietta interview, op cit.

26. Keefer, Huggins, Stayer, Marietta interviews, op cit.

27. Interview with Mrs. Mathew Reasoner, April 17, 1950.

28. Interview with Mrs. M.W. Ireland, April 14, 1950.

29. Henry C. Fisher (obt) Military Surgeon, Vol. 80, 1937, pg 87–89.

30. Keefer interview, op cit.

31. Ireland interview, op cit.

32. Annual Rpt, WRGH, 1914.

33. Annual Rpt, WRGH, 1915.

34. Annual Rpt, TSG...1914, pg 69.

35. Annual Rpt, WRGH, 1915.

36. Annual Rpt TSG...1914, pg 13.

37. Ltr F.H. Garrison to Dr. George H. Simmons, Ed., J.A.M.A., Aug. 5, 1914. Collection of the 

Institute of History of Medicine, Welch Med. Lib., Baltimore, MD.

38. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1915.

39. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1915.

40. Annual Rpt TSG...1915, pg 161.

41. John Babson Soule, Article in the Terre Haute Ind. Express, 1851.

42. Ltr from Frances Phillips to writer, Jan. 23, 1951; Wm. Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in 

Panama, op cit, pg 243.

43. Tlgm Gorgas to Phillips, Apr. 24, 1914, SGO folder 1430, War Rec. Div. Nat’l Archives.
117

Normal Growth VI

44. Endorsement signed by James F. Harrison, M.D., Oct. 2, 1883, Ibid.

45. SGO Folder 1430, op cit.

46. Ltr to S.F. Phillips, signed “JM” (John Moore) Surgeon General U.S. Army, Jan. 10, 1890, 

Folder 1403, op cit.

47. Ltr from S.F. Phillips, Senate Bldg. Wash., D.C., to TSW, Jan. 10, 1890, Folder 1430, op cit.

48. Ibid.

49. AGO SO 121, par 31, 24 May 1898; AGO SO 138; 14 June 1898; AGO SO 166, 13 

October 1898.

50. Interview with Col. Herbert N. Dean, MAC, Ret., April 12, 1950.

51. Otto L. Nelson, op cit, pg 82.

52. Folder 1430, op cit.

53. Hall interview, op cit.

54. Ireland interview, op cit.

55. Kean interview, op cit.

56. Interview Mrs. Aileen Gorgas Wrightson, July 18, 1950.

57. Folder 1430, op cit, Rpt signed by F.A. Winker, CO, A&NH, Feb. 2, 1915.

58. Answer to questions submitted by Lt. Col. Andre W. Brewster, I.G., No. 88...“One officer opened 

elevator door at night and stepped off into space, the elevator not being at that floor. The fault 

was not in the elevator.” Annual Inspection, WRGH, Dec. 1916, signed P.M. Ashburn, Maj., 

M.C. and Chf of Medical Service. Incident mentioned in all interviews on Phillips.

59. Hall interview, op cit.

60. Marietta interview, op cit; Stayer interview, op cit.

61. Stayer interview, op cit.

62. Edgar Erskine Hume, History of the Military Surgeon...op cit, pg 87.

63. Annual Rpt., WRGH, 1916.

64. Braden April 1945; June 26, 1950.

65. Danielson interview, op cit.

66. Danielson, Thompson, Braden interviews, op cit; Miss Bernice Hansen, ANC, Ret., July 18, 

1950. (Telephone)
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VI Borden’s Dream

67. Ibid.

68. Braden, op cit; Ltr from Lt. Col. Elvira Helgren, ANC, Ret. to writer, June 6, 1950.

69. Annual Rpt WRGH, 1916.

70. Kean MSS, pg 133.

71. Ltr from N.M. Miller 631 Penna Ave., N.W. to TSG, W.C. Gorgas, War Dept. Nov. 23, 1951, 

SGO file 19928, War Rec. Div. Nat’l Archives.

72. Ibid.

73. Kean, op cit.

74. Annual Rpt TSG...1913, pg 171.

75. Ibid, pg 172.

76. Ibid, pg 180–182.

77. Ibid, 1914, pg 146–149.

78. Ibid, 1914, pg 149.

79. Ibid, 1915, pg 162–163.

80. Ibid, 1914, pg 163.

81. Ibid, 1915, pg 164.

82. Division of the Surgeon General’s Office.

83. Memo frm Robert W. Patterson, TSG to TAG, Sept. 14, 1931. Subject, The Surgeon General’s 

Library and The Army Medical Museum. SGO 631.-1 (Judge Thompson’s files).

84. Conversation with Dr. Caludius Mayer, Chf. Index-Catalogue Division, AMI, as proposed 

by the Director Lt. Col. Frank B. Rogers.

85. Ltr Garrison to Simmons, Ap. 26, 1911; Ap. 5 and 8, 1914. Collection... op cit.

86. SGO 631.1 (The Army Medical Library), CG, (Judge Thompson’s files).

87. Annual Rpt TSG...1916, pg 16.

88. Ibid, pg 163.

89. Ibid, pg 200.