117). The twenty-fifth section of the act of July 5, 1838 (5 id., 256), made provision for the expansion of the department, to meet the emergency of a sudden increase in the strength of the Army, by authorizing the President to appoint such number of additional paymasters as he might deem necessary “to pay the troops with sufficient punctuality"; such increase, however, was not "to exceed one for every two regiments of militia or volunteers," and the additional paymasters were to be continued in service only so long as their services might be required to pay militia and volunteers. The substance of this requirement was subsequently incorporated in the Revised Statutes as section 1184 of that enactment. By section 3 of the act of July 4, 1836, the President was authorized to assign any officer of the Army to duty as a paymaster, and the officer so assigned was to give bond, but was entitled to receive the pay and emoluments allowed by law to paymasters. By section 4 of the act of August 23, 1842 (id., 512), the number of majors in the departments was reduced to fourteen. The duties of the officer of the Pay Department were defined by section 4 of the act of April 24, 1816 (3 id., 297), and by the act of July 14, 1832 (4 id., 580), bonds were required and paymasters brought under the Articles of War by section 6 of the act of April 24, 1816 (3 id., 297). The rank indicated by their pay and allowances was conferred upon officers of this department by section 13 of the act of March 3, 1847 (9 id., 184), and the restriction in respect to the exercise of command, which is embodied in section 1183 of the Revised Statutes, appeared originally in the same enactment. By section 12 of the same act two deputy paymasters general (lieutenant colonels) were added to the establishment. At the close of the war with Mexico the organization of the department was fixed at one Paymaster General (colonel), two deputy paymasters general (lieutenant colonels), and twenty-five paymasters with the rank of major, and the officers of the department were placed upon the same footing in respect to tenure of office as officers of other disbursing departments of the Army. By the same enactment the bonds of paymasters were required to be renewed at least once in every four years, and as much oftener as the President might direct.

The needs of the department were met during the period of the War of the Rebellion by the appointment of additional paymasters under the authority conferred by section 25 of the act of July 5, 1838 (sec. 1184, Revised Statutes). At the general reorganization of the Army in 1866 the personnel of the departwent was established at one Paymaster General (brigadier general), two assistant paymasters general (colonels), two deputy paymasters general (lieutenant colonels), and sixty paymasters with the rank of major. The Paymaster General was to be selected from the corps, and the vacancies in the grade of major were to be filled by the appointment of persons who had served as additional paymasters during the War of the Rebellion. (Secs. 18 and 23, act of July 28, 1866, 14 Stat. 335.) At the reduction of 1869 it was provided by section 6 of the act of March 3, 1869 (15 id., 318), that there should be no more appointments or promotions in the department until the further order of Congress, but this requirement was modified by the act of June 4, 1872 (17 id., 219), which authorized the appointment of a Paymaster General with the rank of colonel to fill an existing vacancy, and by the act of March 2, 1875 (18 id., 338), and joint resolution No. 7 of March 2, 1875 (id., 524), which fixed the number of paymasters at fifty. The rank of brigadier general was restored to the office of Paymaster General by the act of July 22, 1876 (19 id., 95), and the restriction established by the act of March 3, 1869, was finally removed by the act of March 3, 1877 (id., 270).

A gradual reduction in the strength of the department was provided for in the acts of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat. 451), and July 5, 1884 (23 id., 108), by authorizing the voluntary retirement of paymasters of over twenty years' service, and by a requirement that there should be no more original appointments to the grade of lieutenant colonel and major until the number of officers in the department had been reduced to thirty-five and the organization of the department was thereafter to be as follows: One paymaster general (brigadier general), two assistant paymasters general (colonels), three deputy paymasters general (lieutenant colonels), and twenty-nine paymasters (majors). By the act of July 16, 1892 (27 id., 175), the number of majors was reduced to twentyfive, by the act of February 12, 1895 (28 id., 655), it was still further reduced to twenty, which was declared to be the number authorized by law.

By section 21 of the act of February 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 754), the permanent strength of the department was fixed at one Paymaster General with the rank

of brigadier general, three assistant paymasters general with the rank of colonel, four deputy paymasters general with the rank of lieutenant colonel, twenty paymasters with the rank of major, and twenty-five paymasters with the rank of captain, mounted. A system of details was also established by the operation of which the permanent commissioned personnel of the department will be replaced, as vacancies occur, by officers detailed from the line of the Army for duty in the Pay Department.

By section 3 of the act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 591), the Quartermaster's, Subsistence, and Pay Departments of the Army were consolidated into a single department known as the Quartermaster Corps of the Army, the officers of the consolidated departments thereafter being known as officers of the Quartermaster Corps, with the same titles of rank held by them prior to the consolidation; and, for the purpose of filling vacancies, to constitute one list arranged according to rank, etc.

728. Organization.-From and after the approval of this Act the Medical Department of the United States Army shall consist of a Medical Corps and a Medical Reserve Corps, as hereinafter provided; and the Hospital Corps, the nurse corps, and dental surgeons, as now authorized by law. Sec. 1, Act of Apr. 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 66).

THE MEDICAL CORPS.

729. Composition.-The Medical Corps shall consist of one Surgeon-General, with rank of brigadier-general, who shall be chief of the Medical Department; fourteen colonels, twenty-four lieutenantcolonels, one hundred and five majors, and three hundred captains or first lieutenants, who shall have rank, pay, and allowances of officers of corresponding grades in the cavalry arm of the service. Immediately following the approval of this Act all officers of the Medical Department then in active service, other than the Surgeon-General, shall be recommissioned in the corresponding grades in the Medical Corps established by this Act in the order of their seniority and without loss of relative rank in the Army, as follows: Assistant surgeonsgeneral, with the rank of colonel, as colonels; deputy surgeons-general, with rank of lieutenant-colonel, as lieutenant-colonels; surgeons, with the rank of major, as majors; assistant surgeons, who at the time of the approval of this Act shall have served three years or more, as captains; and assistant surgeons, with the rank of first lieutenant, who at the time of the approval of this Act shall have served less than three years as such, as first lieutenants; and hereafter first lieutenants shall be promoted to the grade of captain after three years' service in the Medical Corps. Sec. 2, id.

730. Rank and precedence.-Officers of the Medical Department shall take rank and precedence in accordance with date of commission or appointment, and shall be so borne on the official Army Register. Act of July 5, 1884 (23 Stat. 111).

731. Same. Those assistant surgeons who at the time of the approval of this Act shall have attained their captaincy by reason of service in the volunteer forces under the provisions of the Act of February second, nineteen hundred and one, section eighteen, or who will receive their captaincy upon the approval of this Act by virtue of such service, shall take rank among the officers in or subsequently promoted to that grade, according to date of entrance into the Medical Department of the Army as commissioned officers. Sec. 3, Act of Apr. 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 67).

732. Appointments-Examinations.-No person shall receive an appointment as first lieutenant in the Medical Corps unless he shall have been examined and approved by an army medical board consisting of not less than three officers of the Medical Corps designated by the Secretary of War. Sec. 4, id.

733. Same-Contract surgeons.-Any contract surgeon not over twenty-seven years of age at date of his appointment as contract surgeon shall be eligible to appointment in the regular corps. Sec.