The approaching close of the medical college terms renders pertinent and timely the suggestion of one desirable field of professional occupation open to the young graduate who has been well educated, to wit: the medical corps of the United States Navy, in which there are now eleven, and will be during the year, independent of possible casualties, thirteen vacancies. From the very creation of this department of the naval service by Act of Congress, approved March 27, 1794, contemporary with the establishment of a naval force, this corps has maintained its high professional standing by the exclusion of unqualified candidates, and by a subsequent examination of the assistant surgeon, formerly five, but now only three years after his admission, before he is recommended for promotion to the grade of surgeon, which examination successfully passed, his future depends upon his own conduct as an officer and a gentleman.
For many years