Organized medicine and surgery is confronted now with its particular responsibilities in another great war. It will make the most constructive contribution to this vast destructive cataclysm.
The government has a solemn responsibility to the soldier. It is morally obligated to return him to civil life, if he returns at all, in a condition as good as or better than when he was called from his peacetime environment. He must be returned, if possible, in a condition which will permit him to take his place in society without prejudice and to compete without handicap in the most strenuous economic struggle of all history.
The National Research Council, at the request of the surgeon generals of the Army and Navy, has compiled directives for the guidance of the military and naval surgeon which contain the best in the literature and practice.
This in some respects is an advance over previous preparation.