Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-08-01
SCIENTISTS AND MEDICAL PROFESSIONS FOCUS
attention ON MAINTAING HEHLTH OF FORCES

The scientific opinion and judgment of
the medical profession of the whole coun-
try have been focused during the past
month on the preparations for maintaining
the health and physical well being of the
vastly increased American military forces
through the Medical Section of the Coun-
ell of National Defense. DIR. Franklin III.
Martin, chairman of the committee on
medicine and surgery OF the advisory com
mission, said in an interview made public
today. In this way the medical corps of
the army and navy have been able to draw
on all the best medical thought of the ma
ton to aid them in solving the wholly new
difficulties which have arisen in the course
of the unprecedented task which they are
facing. DR.. Martin gave unstinted praise
to the personnel of the medical corps of
the two branches of the service and To the
capacity for expansion which they had
shown in an entirely new situation.
at is very difficult TO visualize for the
public the medical problems involved in
making war in striking enough fashion TO
secure them the public attention they
should have DIR. Martin said. ''The work
of the army surgeon, the care of the
wounded, easily holds the public mind, but
vital as il i, it l. of small Importance
compared with the far greater task of
keeping the men in the camps and on the
ships free from disease, particularly dur
ing the months Immediately approaching,
when by far the greater part of the Ameri-
can army will be in training. 1t is singu-
In rlx. fr,,a NJ tlu NunrE nf .arIpn fnr an
arny's health that if il is lone properly
there are no unusual outward results-it
comes to public attention only If 1t j. bun
gled.
.'The trained physician knows that un-
less certain precautions are taken, danger
Gus cpidemics, such a typhoid fever or
meningitis, are almost certain 10 occur III
the army camps, striking often with the
most surprising suddenness. If they do
occur, the whole country i aroused and
the entire medical force hears from it. If
the proper precautions are taken. however.
camp lite j. normal, nothing happens, and
the layman does not know of, or nj least
never gives a thought to the effort which
was necessary 10 prevent the disaster. The
successful army medical officer can never
point 10 his work and say, Here. all these
men were sick, and | cured them He can
only take some dry Hooking statistics and
point out that in the long run few Of his
men were sick. Ii can be said with rea-
sonable accuracy that the less Is heard j.
the medical branch of an m the more
efficient il l., because usually when much
Is said about 1t the comment j. of a very
unpleasant character.
ain some ways this l. unfortunate, be-
cause in order TO impress on the new troops
themselves the necessity of cooperating in
every way with the army physicians IN
maintaining a high health standard the
public should have very clearly in mind
the character of the problem and the steps
which are beng taken 10 meet it. The key
TO the whole situation L. constant vigilance.
and nothing can possibly be a greater spur
at watchfulness on the part of the medi-
cal authorities than the knowledge that the
American people will know and know i'm
mediately If conditions are not what they
ought to be in the housing of the troops,
the sanitation in the camps and the gener-