The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-02
SURGEON sENN,s ARTICLE.
'The Qualifications and Duties of the
 Military SurgeOns,o


 Chicago. Sept, 1.-The Journal of the American Medical association will print tomorrow an article by Lieu tenant Colonel Nicholas Senn, U. s. w., chief of the operating staff with the army in the field, entitled ",rhe Quali- fications and Duties of the Military Surgeons" Colonel Senn says in part:
 Nearly five months of continuous service with the army in the camp and field has afforded me an excellent op- portunity to make practical study Of this subject. The first four weeks were occupied in Camp Tanner where I general in the organization of the state troops. The result of my experience national guard surgeon is a faithful doctor, with more than average profess sional ability, but with few exceptions, lacking necessary military training In performing satisfactorily his adminis- trative duties. This is part of his education that has been sadly neglect cd in the past and shall deserve more attention in the future. The four weeks service at Camp George H. Thomas, as chief surgeon of the Sixth army corps opened up a wide field for extended ob- serVation in making comparisons be- tween the work done by the surgeons of the regular army and of the nation- al guard.
 'The surgeons of the United States army are all men of superior education splendid physical development and those who have been in the service for several years are well versed in the work of the medical departmnt. How ever, in all matters pertaining to medi- cine and surgery the average national guard surgeon more than holds his own. The superiority of the national guard surgeon over his colleagues Of the regular army is no reflection upon the latter as the former has the benefit of practice. During my service at Chickamauga and in the Cuban cam paign I saw more than one volunteer surgeon who ought to have been eX- cluded from the service for physical disability. Of all commissioned otfi- cers the surgeon is the most indispen- sable The vacant place of line offl- cer can be filled at a moments notice without serious loss to the service; not so with the surgeon. His position is one requiring special training and one that cannot be filled without crippling the medical service at some other point. For this I offer no other reason. the medical officer must be in sound health and able to cope successfully with the hardships of a campaign.
 In battle and during the prevalence of an epidemic disease the medical officer is the one above all others whose strength and endurance are taxed to their utmost extent. His services are required by day and by night. He has no rest and unless in possession of an iron constitution his strength fails him and he becomes fit subject for the hospital, or physical wreck, who, if he persists in continuing his work, will often do more harm than good. To the credit of the medical officers of this and other wars it must be said they showed no fear, neither in facing the enemy or what is vastly worse, disease When yellow fever made it's appearance among the troops around Santiago ev- cry man remained at his post and faced the danger without flinching. Men from the north who had never seen the disease accepted the detail for duty in the fever hospitals without word of complaint.