So much having been said concerning the interests and duties of the assistant director of medical services to a division, his exact position in the military hierarchy should be defined, and it appears opportune here to sketch the chain of medical responsibility in so far as it affects an army in the field.

Fig. 23 illustrates how responsibility for general policy and larger plans grows as it passes upward from the assistant directors of divisions, through corps and army, until it culminates with the Director-General of Medical Services at general headquarters. Reversely, how responsibility for detail and the practical administration of medical units in the field increases as it passes from above downward to the assistant directors.

The respective authority and responsibility of the several administrative officers forming the sequence, may, with the aid of the diagram, be briefly considered.

The commanding officers of the three field ambulances, together with the medical officers attached to battalions and other divisional units, take their instructions from and are accountable to the assistant director. While he has the immediate control of medical arrangements in the division, he is directly responsible to the deputy director of medical services of his corps for their proper conduct, and for the work of field ambulances and regimental medical officers. He communicates matters of importance to the deputy director and receives counsel, instruction and orders from him. 

The deputy director of the corps is, in his turn, responsible to the director of medical services of the army for the administration of his assistant directors of divisions. He is, moreover, directly responsible for the work of the sanitary sections and medical officers of corps units. In this connection it should be remembered that if he decide in favor of a corps rest station or scabies hospital during peace warfare or a corps walking wounded, or corps dressing station during an offensive, the personnel, although drawn from various field ambulances, may for the time being, come under his administration.

The director is responsible for medical affairs in his army to the Director-General of Medical Services at general headquarters. This responsibility, like that of the deputy director, is both direct and indirect. He is directly responsible for such establishments as casualty clearing stations; stationary hospitals which may be in the area; motor ambulance convoys and other medical units, together with the regimental medical officers attached to army formations.

 

He is indirectly responsible, through the deputy and assistant directors, for the general conduct and control of all. medical administration of corps and divisions in his, army. In sanitary matters he has the advice of a skilled specialist, known as the deputy assistant director of sanitation, while corps and divisions are charged with the responsibility of carrying out practical details.

It is obvious that the various officers forming this chain of responsibility from below upward and of authority from above downward are not merely transmitters but each must add his own thought and action to that of the others.

Each of these authorities has one or more officers on his staff, to assist in administrative work and fulfill other duties which may be assigned to them.

It is unnecessary to enter in to the technicalities of the subject, but in the present case of the assistant director of a division there is an officer termed, like the sanitary adviser of an army, a deputy assistant director of medical services. These two administrative officers arrange their own headquarters conveniently to the divisional headquarters, of which they form the medical part. Here they deal with returns concerning sick and wounded; medical personnel with its wastage, etc.;