Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/48

 xxxviii INTRODUCTION

ments which were easily as far in advance of their times in surgery as were many policies of our statesmen in government.

Martin B. Tinker.

Noted Surgeons of the United States Army and Navy.

When the War of Independence broke out the American Colonies were entirely unprepared for the great struggle. Armies had to be created, horses, arms, ammunition and all the necessaries of war to be provided for. A medical department, one of the most important ele- ments for carrying on war successfully, had to be established. Fortu- nately the country had men equal to the task. Morgan, Shippen, Coch- ran brought order out of chaos; they organized the medical service, established hospitals, introduced sanitary measures and gathered a competent corps of surgeons. The services these men rendered the cause of liberty were no less valuable than those of the men who fought and bled on the battlefields of the Revolution.

Dining the War of 1812, Surgeon-General Tilton stood at the head of the Medical Department of the Army. He had a rare talent for organiza- tion, and by his zeal and devotion rendered his country invaluable ser- vices. Tilton was followed by Lovell, a noble and high minded gentle- man, who labored incessantly for the elevation and perfection of the medical service of the army. During the period immediately preceding the Civil War the department stood under Surgeon-General Lawson, who commands both our admiration and respect as an organizer, as a man of deep sense of duty and rare executive ability.

Then came the great struggle between the States, and the Medical Department of the Army was put to a severe test, but "the corps proved true to its past record and astonished the world, not less by the vastness of its operations than by the success of their accomplishment." So marked was the progress in military surgical and sanitary science during the great war, and so efficient was the work of the medical department, that it attracted the attention of European governments, who found it to their interest to study its organization and "to avail themselves of the vast treasures of experience accumulated by the medical department in our last great war."

The Medical Department of the Navy is of a later date than that of the army. The navy was very small during the Revolution and its medical service was practically without an organization. The man who organ- ized the Medical Department was Dr. Barton, who, in 1842, became chief. The standard was steadily raised until it is now equal to that of any navy in the world.

Among the surgeons of the United States Army and Navy who dis-