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.

734. Promotions-Seniority.-Promotions in the Medical Corps to fill vacancies in the several grades created or caused by this Act, or hereafter occurring, shall be made according to seniority, but all such promotions and all appointments to the grade of first lieutenant in said corps shall be subject to examination as hereinafter provided: Provided, That the increase in grades of colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major provided for in this Act shall be filled by promotion each calendar year of not exceeding two lieutenant-colonels to be colonels, three majors to be lieutenant-colonels, fourteen captains to be majors, and of the increase in the grade of first lieutenant not more than twenty-five per centum of the total of such increase shall be appointed in any one calendar year. Sec. 3, id.

735. Same-Examinations.-No officer of the Medical Corps below the rank of lieutenant-colonel shall be promoted therein until he shall have successfully passed an examination before an army medical board consisting of not less than three officers of the Medical Corps, to be designated by the Secretary of War, such examination to be prescribed by the Secretary of War and to be held at such time anterior to the accruing of the right to promotion as may be for the best interests of the service: Provided, That should any officer of the Medical Corps fail in his physical examination and be found incapacitated for service by reason of physical disability contracted in the line of duty, he shall be retired with the rank to which his seniority entitled him to be promoted; but if he should be found disqualified for promotion for any other reason, a second examination shall not be allowed, but the Secretary of War shall appoint a board of review to consist of three officers of the Medical Corps superior in rank to the officer examined, none of whom shall have served as a member of the board which examined him. If the unfavorable finding of the examining board is concurred in by the board of review, the officer reported disqualified for promotion shall, if a first lieutenant or captain, be honorably discharged from the service with one year's pay; and, if a major, shall be debarred from promotion and the officer next in rank found qualified shall be promoted to the vacancy. If the action of the examining board is disapproved by the board of review, the officer shall be considered qualified and shall be promoted. Sec. 5, id.

736. Same. Any major of the Medical Corps on the active list of the army who, at his first examination for promotion to the grade of lieutenant-colonel in said corps, has been or shall hereafter be found disqualified for such promotion for any reason other than physical disability incurred in the line of duty shall be suspended from promotion and his right thereto shall pass successively to such officers next below him in rank in said corps as are or may become eligible to promotion under existing law during the period of his suspension;

and any officer suspended from promotion, as hereinbefore provided, shall be reexamined as soon as practicable after the expiration of one year from the date of completion of the examination that resulted in his suspension; and if on such reexamination he is found qualified for promotion, he shall again become eligible thereto; but if he is found disqualified by reason of physical disability incurred in line of duty, he shall be retired, with the rank to which his seniority entitles him to be promoted; and if he is not found disqualified by reason of such physical disability, but is found disqualified for promotion for any other reason, he shall be retired without promotion. Act of Mar. 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 737).

737. Saving clause.-Nothing in this Act shall be construed to legislate out of the service any officer now in the Medical Department of the Army, nor to affect the relative rank or promotion of any medical officer now in the service, or who may hereafter be appointed therein, as determined by the date of his appointment or commission, except as herein otherwise provided in section three.1 Sec. 6, Act of Apr. 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 68).

738. Contract surgeons-Employment.-In emergencies the Surgeon-General of the Army, with the approval of the Secretary of War, may appoint as many contract surgeons as may be necessary, at a compensation not to exceed one hundred and fifty dollars per month. Sec. 18, Act of Feb. 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 752).

739. Same-Authority.-When a contract surgeon is in charge of a hospital he shall have the same authority as a commissioned medical officer. Act of Apr. 23, 1904 (33 Stat. 266).

740. Same-Assignment of pay.-Hereafter contract surgeons and contract dental surgeons on duty in Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippine Islands, and Porto Rico may transfer or assign their pay accounts,

'Paragraph 734, ante.

* This enactment replaces section 2 of the act of May 12, 1898 (30 Stat. 400), in pari materia. The office of contract surgeon was first established by regulation, but their compensation has been provided for in the annual acts of appropriation for the support of the Army. Such provision ceased to be made in the act of July 16, 1892 (27 Stat. 175), and, until May 12, 1898, when their employment was again authorized by law.

As to military rank and status of contract surgeons, see Dig. J. A. G., 97-98, 4 c, d.

A "contract" or acting assistant" surgeon is not a military officer and has no military rank. He is amenable to the military jurisdiction when employed with the Army in the field in time of war, under the sixty-third article of war, but is in fact no part of the military establishment, being merely a civilian employed by the United States, by contract for his personal services as a medical attendant to the troops. When not serving with troops before the enemy he has no other relation to the military organization or the Government than that established by the terms of his contract, made in accordance with the Army Regulations. He is not subject to military orders in general, like an officer or soldier, but only to such orders or directions as properly pertain to the performance of his particular duties. He is, of course, not eligible to be detailed as a member of a military court. As a civilian, however, he is entitled to the per diem allowance, etc., when duly attending a court-martial. Dig. Opin. J. A. G., 97 (c). See A. R. 1391 and 1394 of 1913.