thoroughly instructed are the men admitted into the hospital, and the more valuable their services to the Government. In the regular service, the period of enlistment being for five years, discharges should not be granted for curable diseases with the same facility as in the volunteer service. Ordinarily, in the regular service certificates of disability should be given only for incurable disorders, injuries, or deformities.

Is the disability sufficient to disable the man from the performance of military duty? This is an important question, not easily decided. In a great variety of injuries, and in some obscure forms of disease especially, the determination cannot be made with certainty, because there are so many circumstances, whose precise importance cannot be estimated, influencing the result. These circumstances are the seat and character of the lesion, the degree in which the disability really exists, and the extent to which it is increased by the voluntary efforts of the patient. In many instances there may be no difficulty whatever. The disease may be so well pronounced or so far advanced, and the wound or injury may be followed by such evident imperfections, deformity, or loss of function, as in either case

to admit of no reasonable doubt of the soldier's unfitness for military service. A disability completely disabling is more easily recognized than unfitness for field-service merely. In examining men for admission into the Invalid Corps, unfitness for field-service, and capability of performing the duty required of the Invalid Corps, are the questions to be determined. Previous to the organization of this corps, men unfit for field-service were almost inva riably discharged.

CHAPTER II.

INVALID CORPS.

PARAGRAPH 10 of General Orders No. 36 of 1862, from the War Department, authorized the "chief medical officer in each city" (medical director) "to employ, as cooks, nurses, and attendants, any convalescent, wounded, or feeble men who can perform such duties, instead of giving them discharges;" but this regulation, from causes which it is not necessary at this time to relate, proved to be inapplicable, and was practically ignored. By General Orders 69 of 1863, from the War Department, General Orders 36 of the previous year was modified as follows:

"At every U. S. general hospital, the feeble and wounded men unfit for field-duty, but not entirely disabled, instead of being discharged, will be organized and mustered in detachments under the charge of the officers acting as military commanders, who will assign men to them from time to time, on the reports of the surgeons in charge of hospitals. From these

invalid detachments the military commanders will make details for provost, hospital, and other necessary guards, for clerks, hospital attendants, nurses, cooks, and other extra-duty men.

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"Should any of the men become fit for duty with their regiments, they will be immediately sent to join them."

In these orders the formation of an Invalid Corps was foreshadowed; but the separation of it from the company and regimental organization was not contemplated until the publication of General Orders 105 of 1863, which authorized the organization of an "Invalid Corps," as follows:

"This corps shall consist of companies, and, if it shall hereafter be thought best, of battalions. The companies shall be made up from the following sources,―viz.:

"First, by taking those officers and enlisted men of commands now in the field (whether actually present or temporarily absent) that, from wounds received in action or diseases contracted in the line of duty, are unfit for field-service, but are still capable of effective garrison-duty, or such other light duty as may be required of an invalid corps.

"Second, by taking those officers and enlisted men still in service and borne on the rolls, but who are absent from duty in hospitals or convalescent camps, or are otherwise under the control of medical officers.

"Third, by accepting those officers and enlisted men who have been honorably discharged on account of wounds or disease contracted in the line of duty, and who desire to re-enter the service."

The officers and men of the first class must fulfill the following conditions:

"1. That they are unfit for active fieldservice on account of wounds or disease contracted in the line of duty,”—this fact being certified by a medical officer in the service, after personal examination.

"2. That they are fit for garrison-duty," this fact being likewise certified by the medical officer, as above, after personal examination.

"3. That they are, in the opinion of their commanding officers, meritorious and deserving." This fact is certified on the rolls of such enlisted men or officers by intermediate commanders.

"The rolls of men for the Invalid Corps, prepared by commanders of convalescent