The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-06-03
D. 5. ARMY HEAlTH|EST
N ALL THE WORLD
Ntnety.Four and Three Tcnths Fer
Cent OF A. Il. F. Effective for
Duty ut All Times.

Paris. May 2e.--Back In the six.
teenth century the court coiner Of
| King Louis XII. of France. having &C.
cumulated substatial rake-of,
through the unethical treatment oi
the Edges OF Louis Dor, built him.
self pretentious dwelling in a mod.
est quarter of Turs and settled down
in retirement.
The years passed and so did the
! coiner. But the house remained
standing. as II waiting an opportunity
| to efface the memory OF its shame by
rendering service to nobler tenants.
That opportunity has come; the
sombre walls, which once looked
down upon The miser lingering his
| gold, today - echo to the gathering
OF the ultr-modern machines whose
J mechanical fingers register the very
pulse beat of the A. f. F..
/ Here are the sick and wounded re-
cords of the American army-4.300.
! 600 cards tina. show its health, its
wounds and diseases, Its deaths and
recoveries. 1t is all here, the entire
| history OF the work OF the medical de-
partment in France. And 1t is all in
| order, thanks to the automatic tabu
| lating machinec, and diligent staff,
including members of the French no
bility and Russian countess.
There Is one yardstick with which
to measure the work of an army's
medical department. What part of
the army did it keep on the EFF
| fective' list? High and clear above
! all mistakes made. Swallowing almost
| into obscurty all defects and blem-
| ishes. the record of the medical de-
partment of the American army
| stands out in bold relief as one of the
| great accomplishments in medical
war history
! Ninety-four and three-tenths per
cent of the Yank army was effective
| for duty at all times, and all of the
| ST per cent On the non effective list
| only "a per cent of them were so
| rendered by disease. This means that
! the American army was the health
| lest army in tho history of warfare.
| But while the work of the medi-
cal department. including As IL does
| both the ounce of prevention and the
| pound of cure, il best reflected in the
| general health Of the army, its capa-
! city is put to the hardest test when
| ii must follow the army into action.
| take up its manned and wounded,
and then with all its resources of
| skill and science restore every posi-
| BILE man to the ranks. The 1916, 900
! Yanks that the Boch succeeded in
one way or another in wounding rep
resented certainly the most direct
| challenge that came to our medical
! corps. 1t came straight from the
enensy.s slns and II was to he, met in
| typically American fashion.
The medical corps is a non-eom
| blatant organization, but 1t waged the
| longest. hardest. biggest battle of the
war--a battle for the lives of those
las, onn wounded Americans. The
| lives of 49,. 900 were saved.
For many of those lost the battle
was very close. In the days to come
| young America will hear very few
stories OF the empty sleeve. because.
thanks to the modern surgery and
medicine. there are few Yanks only
! with empty sleeves or wooden legs:
but all America will read the history
OF the splendid work OF the medical
corps in the $4,000 o. D. sleeves en-
titled to wear wound chevrons.
72.72s Deaths to Date.
! The health and wound record Of an
army meet in its vital statistics. To
date there have been 72,723 deaths in
the A.. f. F.. OF which 1882 were out
on the nigh field rendezvous. 1920
of wounds and battle causes, 2,205
of disease, ana 4,s0s OF accident and
other causes.
1t will hardly fail to be recorded Of
the American army that il was sin
gularly clean fighting force. Its
venereal rate has been decidedly the
! lowest of any of the allied army or
| enemy armies, varying frem to- -
A year for each thousand OF its men.
and averaging less than 40 as a
/ whole.
Typhoid, which used to be the great
scourge of armies. played a very in
significant part in the battle between
disease and the American army.
There have only been about 900
cases altogether and less than half a
hundred deaths. Pneumonia re-
placed it as the most dreaded OF di-
seases. At the time of the armistice
there had been about 5000 deaths
from this disease and influenza in the
A, r. r. Epidemic. dysentery, al
though causing only very few
deaths. At one time pervaded our
lighting forces to serious extent
This is the history of the A. z. F.
medical department. One can pry
and prod into every chapter. every
page of it, and spread details, many
of them of interest and Importance.
over entire issues Of papers and mag
| azines. but the cold bare facts unan-
swerahle remain.
How was il made? That is story
of the $3.50 officers. 1857 nurses and
122.473 enlisted men of the medical
corps. of the 1853 base hospitals. Sc
camp hospitals. and ~ convalescent
camps operated by them of first aid
stations, of mobile, field and evacua-
ton hospitals, of light ambulances
that sneaked up under the enemy's
fire and gathered in the wounded. of
great hospital trains and river barges
that distributed them to all parts of
! France. OF great hospital cities wait
ing in the rear to take them in and
nurse them back to health and hap
niness.
The most obvious necessity of any
army after food, clothes and guns, Is
hospitals. When the A. f. F.. arrived
in France in stable proportions. the
questions Of hospitals at once became
| acute. France and England. with
their hundreds of thousands of
| wounded and sick. seemed to have
/ taken every available building. to be
using every apparent facility for hos
pitalization. BY no means the least
| creditablc of the accomplishments of
the medical department was the