Any one of the following conditions will be sufficient to cause rejection: Feeble constitution; poor physique; impaired general health; any disease or deformity, either congenital or acquired, which would impair efficiency, such as weak or deranged intellect, cutaneous diseases, parasites of the skin or its appendages, deformity of the skull, abnormal curvature of the spine, torticollis, inefficiency of joints or limbs, deformity of joints or bones either congenital or the result of disease or injury, epilepsy, or other convulsions, disease of the eye, defective vision, color-blindness, impaired hearing or disease of the ear, chronic nasal catarrh, ozena, polypi, great enlargement of the tonsils, impediment of speech, disease of heart or lungs, enlarged abdominal organs, evidence of sclerosis, tumors, hernia, large varicocele, sarocele, hydrocele, stricture, fistula, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, disease of the genito-urinary organs, deformed or diseased feet; evidences of intemperance or of the morbid use of drugs, loss of many teeth, or teeth generally unsound (teeth properly filled not to be considered unsound). Every applicant must have at least 20 sound teeth, and of these not less than 4 opposed incisors and 4 opposed molars.

Acuteness of vision must be as follows: For the medical corps, not less than 12/20 for each eye, unaided by glasses, and capable of correction by glasses to 20/20.

Upon entering the service, a medical officer is assigned to one of the naval hospitals until the following October, when the Naval Medical School, at Washington, opens. He is then transferred to this school for six months of study. One might wonder why this is necessary, when none but graduates from reliable medical colleges are accepted. No medical college can train physicians suffi

ciently in the rules, regulations, discipline, customs, uniforms and other matters of detail of the service. The young officer receives pay while attending this Naval Medical College, after which he is assigned to sea duty for 3 years as an assistant surgeon, and after that he is promoted to the rank of passed assistant, which carries with it more salary and more responsibility.

The promotion to the grades of surgeon, medical inspector, and medical director is governed by seniority," as the vacancies in higher ranks occur.

A medical officer has the privilege of retiring after thirty years' service, receiving three fourths of the highest salary of the grade in which he served when retired.

Naval Hospitals are located as follows: Annapolis, Md.; Aucon, Panama; Canacao, P. I.; Chelsea, Mass.; Colon, Panama; Great Lakes, South Chicago; Guam, Miarian Island; Las Animas, Cal.; Mare Island, Cal.; Narragansett Bay, R. I.; Norfolk, Va.; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Pensacola, Fla.; Philadelphia; Port Royal, S. C.; Portsmouth, N. H.; Puget Sound, Wash.; San Juan, Porto Rico; Sitka, Alaska; U. S. S. Relief; U. S. S. Solace; Washington, D. C.; Yokohama, Japan.

The Hospital Ship.

The hospital ships today are nothing less than floating hospitals. The divisions are similar to the hospitals on land; medical wards for the sick, other departments for the surgical cases, and isolation wards for the infectious diseases. There are also special rooms for the eye, ear, nose and throat cases, the dispensary for the sick who are not confined to bed, the officers' sick quarters, the dental room, the pharmacy, X-ray room, chemical and bacteriological laboratories and operating rooms.

Each of the hospital ships has its commanding officer and crew for navigation, while the hospital is in charge of an executive medical officer who is responsible for the management of the hospital. The medical staff usually consists of six or more medical officers, a dentist and a pharmacist.

The executive surgeon is supreme in the medical service, and under his supervision some of the most perfect team work is developed. Every medical officer is assigned to a definite duty. He is required to make daily reports. Every evening, consultations are conducted to discuss the treatment of cases, the necessity of operation and the methods to be pursued.

The routine is methodical, and is conducive to the best professional development. The reports must be in detail, and any neglect of duty, or incompetency in service will show in the reports. There is possibly no field of medical service that will develop the resourcefulness of a young physician so satisfactorily as the service on a hospital ship. The ships accompany the war fleets, and the ill on the war vessels are transferred to the hospital ships.

CHAPTER XII.

THE INDIAN SERVICE.

The remnants of the Indian tribes scattered over the western states and territories are the special care of the federal government. The physicians who minister to their needs are salaried employees of the government. The field should be attractive to young men, more especially as it affords experience on sanitary supervision and in preventative measures as well as in medical treatment for diseases.

These men are under the supervision of the Department of the Interior. The staff comprises: a medical supervisor; 2 assistant supervisors; 6 eye specialists; 7 dentists; 108 physicians; 78 contract physicians; 3 traveling nurses; 68 regular nurses; 72 field matrons.

Entrants are selected by civil-service examination. Announcements of these examinations are made in the semi-annual circulars of information, which may be secured by writing to the Civil Service Commission at Washington.

The annual report of the commission states the number examined, the number passed, and the number appointed each year. From these reports it appears that a large percentage of those who pass the examination secure appointments.

The entrance salary for medical men for full-time service is from $900 to $1,100 with certain expense allowance. Promotions are made as vacancies occur.

The contract physician is usually a physician who is available in sparsely settled districts where there is not enough practice to require the full time of a physician. These men get about $480 to $500 per year from the government for this part time service.

These physicians are located on Indian reservations where schools are operated. These stations are the headquarters for the reservation officials, schools and hospitals. The Indians come to the hospitals for treatment and in many cases travel fifty or a hundred miles.

In former times the Indians depended upon their own medicine men. Before the government controlled the Indian tribes, the medicine men were few. As an old Indian chief expressed it: "When the medicine man examined a patient and promised a cure and the patient died, then we killed the medicine man, but today the government does not permit us to do this, and so we have numerous medicine men.”

Today the medicine men are very much in evidence among some tribes, but not more so than "pow-wow doctors among the ignorant whites and the negroes. One even hears of these charm doctors, magnetic healers, with their various mutterings and incantations, in many of the so-called educated white communities.

The Indian tribes differ as much in their tribal practices and customs and physiognomy, as do the Germans, Italians, Irish and English. Many interesting customs prevail, as for instance, the disposition of the dead. The Navajo Indians burn the house or tent in which the deceased lived, together with the body of the dead. The credit is given the old Mosaic Law for the establishment of the first sanitary code, yet there is found among the most uncivilized Indian tribes a practice of cremation