daily ration from the barrel, ate it defiantly, and so made a voyage, lasting over three years, without a single case of scurvy.
It's a man of that heroic stamp he is looking for.
Through a good many years, and on a good many cruises, under a good many skippers of varying temperaments, I have given a lot of thought to a consideration of what an officer of the Line expects of an officer of the Medical Corps. I have come to the conclusion that what most of them dream of — and stubbornly go on hoping to discover someday — is a M. O. who exhibits a combination of all the virtues of the most famous ships' surgeons in history and romantic fiction plus the qualities which Dumas' Three Musketeers sought in their valets — always on hand and ready to fight for and beside them; one whose ear is always alert to catch the rumbling of any approaching disaster; whom nothing that can happen to men's bodies, to their minds, or even to their souls, can dismay.
Line and Staff — these are the Navy. The Line is the backbone of the service. It is composed of the graduates of Annapolis and a selected few who have been commissioned from the warrant officers, who command the ships and the enlisted men who man them. Officers of the Line are marked by a star on their coat sleeves above the rows of gold braid which denote their rank. To sustain the Line, there are a number of Staff Corps, which are grouped under special departments: The Department of Yards and Docks, the members of which are the architects, construction engineers and builders; the Department of Supply, charged with the job of outfitting ships and naval stations; the Department of Ordnance; the Chaplain Corps, and the Medical Department.
The Medical Department's central administrative organization is the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, whose chief is the surgeon general, with the rank of rear admiral. The surgeon general is appointed directly by the President for a term of four years.
Our present surgeon general, Rear Admiral Ross T. Mclntire, is a physician of outstanding ability. Under his leadership, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has anticipated the demand and provided
