Extracts from the reports of the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, for 1863 and 1864.

Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts from the reports of the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, for 1863 and 1864. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    8/12
    tnry position. And, although promotion in some Staff Corps is apparently limited by law, exalted service has earned for zealous and efficient incumbents the honors of higher preferment by brevet. The system of equally rewarding staff service by promotion and pay must have its advantages, or it would not have been adopted, or continued in such an enlightened organization as the Army; and, if it has advantages, the Navy should not hesitate to adopt the same means, to secure the same results. And, though the Army practice has been marked with considerable liberality, its military efficiency, and spirit, are not, apparently, in the slightest degree, impaired by its recognition of merit, as conducive to public results, without any reference to the sphere, or calling of the individual who exhibits this merit. And while it may not increase the skill of a professional man, that he is assimilated in pay and position to a General, it certainly inspires him with more zeal and energy to find that his Government not only exacts no sacrifice of professional pride, or status, in accepting its service, but that it offers equally .to him. as to others, all the honors and rewards, which capacity, industry, and fidelity, should command. And, as a signal illustration of the reward that follows efficient staff service in the Army, the medical profession has hailed with pleasure, a recent official announcement that a Medical Purveyor, with the rank of Major, has been ad- vanced to the rank, and emoluments of Brigadier General, for the diligent and .zealous discharge of his duties. His .less fortunate brethren of the Navy, rejoice at the compliment so grace- fully paid to the profession; and labor not the less earnestly in their vocation, because they still hopefully await some similar evidence, that the laborer may be found worthy of his hire. The highest rank attained by a Medical Officer of the Navy, is reached in less than half the period of service by members of other Staff Corps, and the pay that attaches to a Medical Officer in charge of a Fleet inures to members of other Staff Corps upon similar advantageous terms. The office of Surgeon of the Fleet brings with it no additional rank, because every officer holding such appointment is entitled to his rank by seniority, and not by his temporary office. It can hardly be necessary to refer to the complicated and arduous duties of a Medical Officer, charged with the many and grave responsibilities of a squadron of eighty or one hundred vessels, in a time of war, when so much of his assistance is made up of the inexperienced persons whom our necessities compel us to employ. The mere clerical duties of a Fleet Surgeon, or Hospital Surgeon, with three hundred and fifty or four hundred patients under daily charge, are nearly as great as those incident to the accounting department of a frigate, and yet they are only additions to other weighty responsibilities; for no provision for clerks, or writers is made, under any circumstances, for medical service The Medical Service, for some reason not well perceived, is apparently made the standard of rank for other Staff Corps, without reference to the widely dis- similar duties, acquirements, or trust; and I believe our Navy presents the only instance of such a distribution of rank, or pay. The more systematically organized Navies of Europe are certainly exempt from this peculiarity. The position, and pay, of Medical Officers of the Navy, must have much to do •with the difficulty experienced in obtaining the number adequate to our necessities. Though a Medical Board has been in continuous session for a year, the per- manent corps at this day presents ten vacancies ; and while the opportunities for temporary appointments are offered by facilities for examination at Ports-