of the States comprising the Union and the Territories of the United States contiguous thereto (excepting Porto Rico and Hawaii), and to cumulative leave of absence with pay at the rate of thirty days for each calendar year of service in said corps; and when serving as chief nurses their pay may be increased by authority of the Secretary of War, such increase not to exceed thirty dollars per month; and the superintendent shall be entitled to the same allowances, when on duty, as the members of the Nurse Corps. Act of Mar. 23, 1910 (36 Stat. 249). 772. Cumulative leaves. The superintendent and members of the Female Nurse Corps when serving in Alaska or at places without the limits of the United States may be allowed the same privileges in regard to cumulative leaves of absence and method of computation of same as are now allowed by law to Army officers so serving. Act of Mar. 4, 1912 (37 Stat. 72). 7724. Transportation expenses. The superintendent and nurses shall receive transportation and necessary expenses when traveling under orders. Sec. 19, Act of Feb. 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 753). HOSPITALS.1 * * 773. Hospital matrons-Employment. - Hospital matrons may be employed in post or regimental hospitals in such numbers as may be necessary. Sec. 1239, R. S. * 774. Same-Pay and allowances.-Hospital matrons in post and regimental hospitals shall receive ten dollars a month One ration in kind or by commutation shall be allowed to each.2 Sec. 1277, R. S. 775. Hospital supplies. Such quantities of fresh or preserved fruits, milk, butter, and eggs as may be necessary for the proper diet of the sick may be allowed in hospitals. They shall be provided under such rules as the Surgeon-General, with the approval of the Secretary of War, shall prescribe. Sec. 1175, R. S. MISCELLANEOUS. 776. Treatment in private hospitals, etc. For medical care and treatment not otherwise provided for, including care and subsistence 1 As to hospital buildings, management of the same, etc., see pars. 1464 to 1470, A. R., 1913. *The authority for the employment of female nurses, conferred by section 1239, Revised Statutes, was replaced by section 19, act of February 2, 1901, paragraphs 769 to 7721, ante. The rate of compensation for female nurses fixed at 40 cents per day by section 1277 of the Revised Statutes, was replaced by the rates of compensation established in section 19 of the act of February 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 753), paragraph 771, ante. *For statutes authorizing an addition to the ration in the case of patients in hospital who are too sick to be subsisted on the Army ration, and for a similar increase in case of enlisted men in camp during recovery from low conditions of health, consequent upon service in unhealthy regions or in debilitating climates, see the act of February 26, 1900 (31 Stat. 212). in private hospitals, of officers, enlisted men, and civilian employees of the Army, of applicants for enlistment, and of prisoners of war and other persons in military custody or confinement, when entitled thereto by law, regulation, or contract: Provided, That this shall not apply to officers and enlisted men who are treated in private hospitals or by civilian physicians while on furlough, Act of Mar. 2, 1913 (37 Stat. 718). * * * dollars. 777. Pay of extra nurses. For the pay of male and female nurses, not including the Nurse Corps (female), and of cooks and other civilians employed for the proper care of sick officers and soldiers, under such regulations fixing their number, qualifications, assignment, pay, and allowances as shall have been or shall be prescribed by the Secdollars. Act of Mar. 3, 1911 (36 Stat. retary of War, 1054). * * * 778. Epidemic diseases. For the proper care and treatment of epidemic and contagious diseases in the Army or at military posts or stations, including measures to prevent the spread thereof, and the payment of reasonable damages not otherwise provided for, for bedding and clothing injured or destroyed in such prevention, 779. Services of physicians. - For the pay of civilian physicians employed to examine physically applicants for enlistment and enlisted men, and to render other professional services from time to time under proper authority, dollars. Act of Mar. 2, 1907 (34 Stat. 1172). * * 780. Board on preparation of viruses. The Surgeon-General of the Army, the Surgeon-General of the Navy, and the supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service, are hereby constituted a board with authority, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to promulgate from time to time such rules as may be necessary in the judgment of said board to govern the issue, suspension, and revocation of licenses for the maintenance of establishments for the propagation and preparation of viruses, serums, toxins, antitoxins, and analogous products, applicable to the prevention and cure of diseases of man, intended for sale in the District of Columbia, or to be sent, carried, or brought for sale from any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, into any other State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or from the United States into any foreign country, or from any foreign country into the United States: Provided, That all licenses issued for the maintenance of establish As to medical attendance for Philippine Constabulary, see sections 1 to 5, Act of the Philippine Commission of November 7, 1903 (No. 985). *This item has appeared in the annual appropriation for a number of years. Similar provisions have appeared in subsequent appropriation acts for the Army. ments for the propagation and preparation in any foreign country of any virus, serum, toxin, antitoxin, or product aforesaid, for sale, barter, or exchange in the United States, shall be issued upon condition that the licentiates will permit the inspection of the establishments where said articles are propagated and prepared, in accordance with section three of this act. Sec. 4, Act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 729). 781. Advisory board for Hygienic Laboratory. - There shall be an advisory board for the hygienic laboratory provided by the Act of Congress approved March third, nineteen hundred and one, for consultation with the Surgeon-General of the Public Health and MarineHospital Service relative to the investigations to be inaugurated, and the methods of conducting the same, in said laboratory. Said board shall consist of three competent experts, to be detailed from the Army, the Navy, and the Bureau of Animal Industry by the Surgeon-General of the Army, the Surgeon-General of the Navy, and the Secretary of Agriculture, respectively, which experts, with the director of the said laboratory, shall be ex officio members of the board, and serve without additional compensation. Five other members of said board shall be appointed by the Surgeon-General of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall be skilled in laboratory work in its relation to the public health, and not in the regular employment of the Government. The said five members shall each receive compensation of ten dollars per diem while serving in conference, as aforesaid, together with allowance for actual and necessary traveling expenses and hotel expenses while in conference. Said conference is not to exceed ten days in any one fiscal year. The term of service of the five members of said board, not in the regular employment of the Government, first appointed shall be so arranged that one of said members shall retire each year, the subsequent appointments to be for a period of five years. Appointments to fill vacancies occurring in a manner other than as above provided shall be made for the unexpired term of the member whose place has become vacant. Sec. 5, Act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 713). 782. Artificial limbs. - Every officer, soldier, seaman, and marine who, in the line of duty in the military or naval service of the United States, shall have lost a limb or sustained bodily injuries depriving him of the use of any of his limbs, shall receive once every three years an artificial limb or appliance, or commutation therefor, as provided and limited by existing laws, under such regulations as the Surgeon-General of the Army may prescribe; and the period of three years shall be held to commence with the filing of the first See XVII, Opin. Att. Gen. The * sums * * * application after the seventeenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy. Sec. 1, Act of Aug. 15, 1876 (19 Stat. 203). hereby appropriated shall be expended and disbursed under the direction of the Surgeon-General of the Army, and in accordance with existing laws.1 Acts of Mar. 23, 1876 (19 Stat. 8); Mar. 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1103). 783. Trusses.- Every soldier of the Union Army, or petty officer, seaman, or marine in the naval service, who was ruptured while in the line of duty during the late war for the suppression of the rebellion, or who shall be so ruptured thereafter in any war, shall be entitled to receive a single or double truss of such style as may be designated by the Surgeon-General of the United States Army as best suited for such disability; and whenever the said truss or trusses so furnished shall become useless from wear, destruction, or loss, such soldier, petty officer, seaman, or marine shall be supplied with another truss on making a like application as provided for in section two of the original act of which this is an amendment: Provided, That such application shall not be made more than once in two years and six months: And provided further, That sections two and three of the said act of May twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventytwo, shall be construed so as to apply to petty officers, seamen, and marines of the naval service, as well as to soldiers of the Army. Sec. 1176, R. S. HISTORICAL NOTE. The medical and surgical needs of the troops composing the revolutionary armies were, at first, supplied by the surgeons who were attached to the several regimental organizations, and no provision seems to have been made for medical or surgical supervision, for the procurement and distribution of supplies, or for the establishment of a general hospital service until 1775, when, by a resolution of Congress dated July 27, 1777, the office of Director-General was established, who was charged with the duties subsequently performed by the Purveyor-General of Medical Supplies. The same enactment provided for a medical staff composed of four surgeons and twenty surgeon's mates, for an apothecary and two storekeepers, and for hospital attendance at the rate of one nurse for every ten patients. Under the authority thus conferred several general hospitals were established at points conveniently near to the several theaters of military operations. The medical establishment thus created was modified by subsequent resolutions of Congress; the changes caused by the resolution of April 22, 1777, being so extensive as to constitute a complete reorganization of the department. As thus modified, however, the department continued in existence until the disbandment of the revolutionary armies in 1783. For the ten years succeeding the organization of the Government under the Constitution the medical and surgical necessities of the troops were met by the medical officers attached to the several organizations constituting the military establishment. The act of March 2, 1799 (1 Stat.. 721), passed in contemplation of a war with France, but which was never fully executed, made provision for a complete medical establishment consisting of a physician-general, an apothecary-general, and a purveyor, together with such numbers of hospital surgeons and mates 1 Commutation rates for limbs, etc., were allowed by the same act, as follows: For artificial legs, $75; for arms, $50; for feet, $50; for apparatus for resection, $50. By the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 979), transportation from home to place of procurement of limbs and return was allowed. MILITARY LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. as the service might require, who were made liable to duty in the field as well as in the hospitals provided for in the statute. The act of March 2, 1799, was repealed and a Medical Department established by section 3 of the act of February 23, 1802 (2 ibid., 133), which fixed the strength of the department at two surgeons and twenty-five surgeon's mates, who were "to be attached to garrisons and posts, and not to corps." During the war of 1812 the necessities of the case were met by a temporary increase of the department and by the allowance of surgeons to regiments called into the service for the period of the war. By section 7 of the act of March 3, 1813 (ibid., 819), a physician and Surgeon-General was authorized, whose powers and duties were to be prescribed by the President of the United States. The office of apothecarygeneral was created by the act of April 24, 1816 (3 ibid., 297), but was abolished by the act of March 3, 1821. The office of Surgeon-General was created by section 2 of the act of April 14, 1818 (ibid., 426). At the general reduction of 1821 the Medical Department was reorganized and made to consist of one Surgeon-General, eight surgeons, and forty-five assistant surgeons. Sec. 2, act of March 2, 1821 (3 ibid., 615). By the act of June 28, 1832 (4 ibid., 500), four surgeons and ten surgeon's mates were added. The act of June 30, 1834 (ibid., 714), contained a requirement that all candidates for appointment, or for promotion to the grade of surgeon, should pass a professional examination as a condition precedent to such appointment or promotion. By this enactment the pay of surgeons was fixed at that allowed to majors, assistant surgeons were to receive for the first five years' service the pay of first lieutenants, and after five years' service the pay of captains. The examination for promotion to the grade of surgeon was to take place after five years' service in the grade of assistant surgeon. By section 33 of the act of July 5, 1838 (5 ibid., 256), seven additional surgeons were authorized, but by section 4 of the act of August 23, 1842 (ibid., 512), a reduction of two surgeons and ten assistant surgeons was ordered, the displaced officers being allowed three months' pay when honorably discharged. At the outbreak of the War with Mexico, under authority conferred by section 6 of the act of February 11, 1847 (9 ibid., 123), two surgeons and twelve assistant surgeons were added to the regular establishment, and regimental medical officers were authorized for the volunteer troops at the rate of one surgeon and one assistant surgeon to each regiment, their service being restricted to the period of the existing war. By the act of March 3, 1849 (ibid., 351), ten assistant surgeons were authorized, and the requirement of the act of July 19, 1848, prohibiting the filling of vacancies in the department was repealed. By the act of August 16, 1850 (11 ibid., 51), four surgeons and eight assistant surgeons were added to the establishment; the force of hospital stewards was increased to such number as the service might require, not to exceed one to each military post; and cooks and nurses, detailed from the enlisted men, were, for the first time, allowed extra-duty pay for service in post hospitals. At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion regimental medical officers were again authorized, one surgeon and one assistant being allowed to each regiment; by the act of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat., 502), an additional assistant was authorized. By section 3 of the act of July 22, 1861 (ibid., 269), one surgeon to each brigade was authorized, but by the act of July 2, 1862 (ibid., 502), these officers were merged in the corps of forty surgeons and one hundred and twenty assistant surgeons created by that statute for the period of the war. By the act of June 21, 1861 (ibid., 378), four surgeons and four assistant surgeons were added to the department. By the act of April 16, 1862 (ibid., 378), the rank of brigadier-general was conferred upon the Surgeon-General; the office of assistant surgeon-general, with the rank and pay of colonel of cavalry was created and the addition of ten surgeons and twenty assistant surgeons was authorized; a corps of medical inspectors was created, consisting of one inspector-general of hospitals (colonel) and eight assistants (lieutenantcolonels), whose duties were defined by law, and who were to hold office during the continuance of the war. By the act of December 27, 1862 (ibid., 633), eight medical inspectors were added and authority was conferred upon these officers to discharge enlisted men for disability contracted in the military service. By this statute a corps of medical cadets was established which continued to exist until its gradual disbandment was brought about by the passage of the general act of reorganization in 1866. By the act of May 20, 1862 (ibid., 378), six medical storekeepers were authorized. By the act of February 25, |