In 1884, while acting Post Surgeon at a lonely frontier station, I became very much interested in the work of the New York State Charities Association. I had been in correspondence with this organization for some time, before it occurred to me that some useful practical work in this direction might be accomplished in the United States military forces. I accordingly prepared the following letter, and as I have been informed that it was probably one of the first on the subject sent to our military medical authorities since the War, I will reproduce it here, merely to introduce the remarks I am about to make on military first aid to the injured. I have never received any reply to the letter, not even an acknowledgment of its receipt, and it was probably ignominiously pigeonholed:
To THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR DEP'T OF THE MISSOURI:
Sir:—I beg leave to call attention to