The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-16
Medical
School
BY Frederic j. Haskin.

Situated on the outskirts of a neg
lected corner of the national capital
on the site THAT was selected by Gen
eral Washington for the University of
the United States, the naval medical
school is an institution almost I'M
known even to the majority of the
residents of Washington. And vet the
work it has been doing in fitting
medical men for service as naval sur
geons has been such as to entitle it to
distinction among the many scientific
activities of the federal government.
Not only does it train the medical
officers of the navy in the work they
have to do for the navy itself in peace
and in war, but its courses of study
lead them into ields of research and
investigation such as have made the
naval surgeon one of the foremost
of the opponents of preventive medi-
cine and public heath.
One of the greatest compensations
the nation enjoys from its tremen-
dous expenditures for army and navy
purposes is the lesson of llfe-saVing
and Eealth-guarding that may be
learned for all humanity through the
care of the soldier and sailor. Here
he principles of preventive medicine
can be enforced to the letter, and the
world is afforded a picture of what its
health may be if it follows out the
health lessons of the army and navy.
And toe train the navy surgeon in the
art of preventing diseases and of
demonstrating the principles of on
trolling it is one of the principal aims
of this school.
The school was established in 1902
by an order of the navy department,
in the face of the fact hat previous
efforts to establish such an institu-
tion had failed. The course of in
struction lasts six months, beginning.
October /. It's chief purpose is to pre-
pare an already well educated medical
man for graphing with the problems
presented by a rapidly growing naval
medical service, and to enable him
from the very beginning of his career
as a naval urgeon to assist in the So
luton of some of these problems. 1t
begins where the regular medical
school ends, and gives opportunity for
specialization for naval work.
Foremost in its curriculum is the
subject of tropical medicine. While
the army surgeon needs to study this
subject of tropical medicine. While
utilize his knowledge, in such fields
as the Philippines, Porto Rice and
Panama, the naval surgeon needs it
during a large proportion of his time.
A fleet of bait eships or a single gum
boat calls at some tropical port, where
the administration of the public health
is distinguished chiefly for it's laxity.
leave to the sailors means all
kinds of risks of exposure to one
tropical disease or another. The sur
geon must be posted on these diseases,
of them ailments he knew only
in theory prior to his cruise in tropical
waters.
Or, conditions in some revolution
ridden little republic may threaten the
peace and safety of the foreign popu-
lation, and the navy nay be called
ito send its marines ashore for the
purpose of protecting life and property,
as was done in Nicaragua. Without
training in tropical medicine
the surgeon might not be able to con-
troll an epidemic or to protect the
health of his men.
The naval surgeon needs to have a
cosmopolitan view of disease. This
month he may be cruising in equa-
torial waters and neXt month in medi-
ral charge of an expedition into polar
1t has been from the lack of
knowledge of the physician concerning