HAMMOND
381
HAMMOND
logical Effects of Albumen, Starch and
Gum when Singly and Exclusively Used
as Foods."
In 1860 he resigned military service to accept the chair of anatomy and physiol- ogy in Maryland University and remain- ed in active conduct of his department and in professional practice in Baltimore until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he resigned, appeared before the Army Medical Examining Board, and re- entered the service as assistant surgeon. On account of his previous experience he was at once assigned to administrative work in the organization of hospitals and sanitary stations, in which he was so suc- cessful as to attract the attention of the Sanitary Commission, who, being dis- satisfied with the administration of the medical department of the army, success- fully urged his appointment as surgeon- general. The work of the surgeon-gen- eral's office at once assumed an aspect of efficiency and force, but the promotion of Hammond over the heads of the assis- tant surgeon-general and the rest of the staff did not fail to create much antag- onism upon the part of his confreres. More particularly his masterful and force- ful administration so clashed with the autocratic spirit of Edmund M. Stanton, secretary of war, that the result was a court-martial by which Hammond was dismissed from the service, a sentence shown later to be unjust and reversed by action of Congress who, in 1878, provided for the appointment of Gen. Hammond with the full rank of brigadier-general previously held by him, upon the retired list.
During the period of his service as Burgeon-general from April 28, 1862 to August 18, 1864, he accomplished many reforms in army medical administration. He inaugurated the "Medical an gica I 1 1 istory of the War of the Rebellion," establish.-. 1 tie- \rmy Medical Museum, introduced the pavilion system of hospi- tal construction extensively throughout the service, ami provided suitable habi- tation for the sick and wounded. The liberal issue of medical books and jour-
nals to the medical officers which has done
so much towards maintaining the high
standard of the department was due to
him. Many other forms which later be-
came realities were also recommended
by him, such as the formation of a per-
manent hospital corps, the establishment
of an army medical school, the location
of a permanent general hospital at Wash-
ington and the institution of a military
medical laboratory. In addition he
urged the autonomy of the medical de-
partment in construction of buildings and
transportation of supplies, a measure the
full materialization of which is still be-
lieved to be essential to the service of the
sick in war.
His court-martial left him in great pe- cuniary embarrassment and it was only through the courtesy of a professional friend, who raised a purse for his benefit, that he was enabled, pending his ulti- mate vindication, to go to New York where he became a noted alienist and lec- tured upon that subject in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, later in Belle- vue Hospital Medical College, the Univer- sity of the City of New York and the New Post-Graduate Medical School; of the lat- ter he was one of the founders. He made many original investigations and utilized extensive clinical opportunities for the recognition and development of hitherto unrecorded conditions; but perhaps his description of the disease called by him, and now universally known as atheto is, is best known.
He wielded a most facile pen and even when carrying the enormous burden of directing the medical department in the greatest war in history, found time to produce a comprehensive work on " Mili- tary Hygiene." His medical books con- lly of works devoted to nervous affections and of these his treatises on "Diseases of the Nervous System" ind " In unity in its Medical Relation the best known. But he is not unknown as a playwriter, and his "Son of Perdi- tion " is thought by some to lie I I
novel of the Christ ever produced.
From 1867 to 1872 he edited "The
