The medical services / [Sir Andrew Macphail].

  • Andrew Macphail
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The medical services / [Sir Andrew Macphail]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/454 page 1
    THE GENERAL THEME The medical service of an army has no existence in itself. It is a vital part of a living fabric, performing a peculiar function, controlling yet being controlled. Dis¬ severed, it decays and the main body perishes. This law of limited existence applies to an army also. Armies never attain to complete vigour through alliance alone. They must become one and indivisible, animated by a single spirit. This hard lesson was learned late by Canadians, and a Minister fell before the lesson was taken to heart. The English learned it later still, in the harsh school of war and Impending defeat. The school of war closed before the Americans had penetrated wholly into this truth. By a final act of vicarious abnegation the British commander- in-chief made himself subordinate in appearance to an allied general, so that the plan and purpose of his own original strategy might not be imperilled. A second, and equally fatal error arose out of failure to observe the fundamental contrast between the civil and military function. To provide the forces is a civil act: to train and employ those forces to the proper end is the military business. Failure to observe this law brought the Canadian medical service and the army itself to the verge of disaster; and wrenched the Canadian con¬ stitution so severely that it has not yet recovered from the strain. l
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3