Report of the results of the July, 1906, Examination for Registration of Physicians in the District of Columbia:

George Washington University:

1903-71.56.

1905-71.73.

1906-65.92, 68.53, 72.89, 73.71, 74.26, 76.25, 77.60, 78.01,

78.62, 78.92, 80,57, 80.77, 81.14, 81.79, 82.77, 84.38,

85.02, 86.19, 88.01, 94.09.

Georgetown University:

1905—66.31, 92.69.

1906-84.00, 87.48.

Howard University :

1905-80.14.

1906-85.87, 89.53.

National University :

1902-32.36.

Baltimore Medical College :

1905-83.10.

University of Virginia :

1906-68.84.

University of Louisville :

1878-74.23.

Hahnemann Medical College :

1904-81.21.

1906-80.52.

Southern Homœopathic Medical College:

1906-64.59.

The average required is 75.

G. C. OBER.

WASHINGTON

MEDICAL ANNALS

THE WALTER REED U. S. ARMY GENERAL HOSPITAL, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.*

BY MAJOR W. C. BORDEN, SURGEON, U. S. ARMY.

When I was honored by an invitation to present a paper at this meeting I at first thought I would be obliged to decline, for I had nothing especially new in medicine or surgery to offer. It occurred to me, however, that the members of the Society might like to hear of the new hospital which the Medical Department of the army is to build in the District of Columbia and of the place in medical work it is intended to fill, and upon my suggesting this subject, Dr. Smith was so kind as to say that it would be of sufficient interest to present to the Society.

The Medical Department in much of its work is so separated from the work of the civilian practitioner, and much of the detail to which the medical officer must give his attention is so different from the routine of the civilian phyiscian, that frequently it must necessarily have but little interest to the latter. The permanent establishment in this community, however, of an army general hospital of considerable size, while such hospital does not in any way interfere, or connect with, the work of the civil hospitals, has certain bearings upon the medical and educational interests of the District which can hardly fail to be of moment to the members of this Society.

It will be noted that the establishment which we are considering is designated The Walter Reed U. S. Army General Hospital. Of the reason for naming the hospital after Walter Reed there is hardly need to speak to this Society, all of whose members knew him so well. It is the custom of the service to name army posts after those officers no longer living who have been distinguished in the service. In this Capitol city no more appropriate name could be given to a permanent army general hospital than that of the man much of whose life was spent here, and whose yellow*Read before the Medical Society October 3, 1906.

fever work was of such inestimable value to mankind; while the connection of the hospital with the Army Medical School, in which Dr. Reed so long served as a teacher, makes the name doubly appropriate.

As to the term "general hospital," this has in the military service a special significance, and means, not necessarily a hospital to which all sorts of cases are admitted, but one which is quite directly under the control of the Surgeon-General of the army. The Army Regulations, paragraph 1467, state that "General hospitals will be under the exclusive control of the Surgeon-General and will be governed by such regulations as the Secretary of War may prescribe. The senior surgeon will command the same, and will not be subject to the orders of local commanders other than those of territorial divisions and departments to whom specific delegation of authority may have been made."

Aside from the special hospitals, such as the field hospital established in time of war, there are in the medical service two kinds of hospitals: the post and the general hospital. The post hospital is for the care of the sick of a military post or station, a special building for this purpose being erected at each established military garrison. The post hospitals do not, except in unusual cases, receive any cases from outside nor care for any other than those immediately attached to the station at which the hospital is placed.

The general hospitals, on the other hand, are alike in taking cases from the army at large, the patients being sent to these hospitals under special regulations, and coming not only from stations throughout the United States but from its territorial possessions. There are in the United States at the present time four general hospitals. Of these, two are special hospitals and two are general hospitals, in the accepted medical significance of

the term.

Of the special "General Hospitals," one is at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and is for the treatment of such diseases as rheumatism, neuralgia and like troubles, which the waters of the Hot Springs of Arkansas have an established reputation of benefiting, except that cases of venereal disease are not admitted. Admission is restricted to cases of the kind above mentioned, and the hospital is entirely a special one.