building should be erected near Base Hospital No. 2, on the Fort Bliss Reservation, both as a matter of economy and of efficiency, as a very large part of the material sent the laboratory for examination would come from the base hospital. It would also be much better from a research standpoint, as clinical material would be near at hand and could be utilized to much better advantage. However, if such a change should be made, it is believed that the present status of the laboratory should remain as it is, i. e., a separate command directly under department headquarters.

It is recommended that measures be taken to give laboratory assistants who have qualified in their duties to the satisfaction of the officer in charge of the individual laboratory a rating for additional pay of $5 a month, as in the case of surgical assistants. Although dispensary assistants now have a rating for additional pay of $2 per month, nurses a rating of $3 per month, and surgical assistants of $5 per month, the national-defense act provided for no rating for additional pay for laboratory assistants, a manifest injustice to a very deserving class of enlisted men in the Medical Department. A good laboratory assistant must possess a large amount of technical scientific knowledge and the duties are very arduous and the hours long, so that it is believed that these men should receive extra pay because of the character of their work. At the present time there is no inducement for men to enter the Army laboratories as assistants, and the consequence is that we often have to content ourselves with inferior service when much better service could be obtained if the assistants received special ratings for additional pay while on duty in laboratories. It is hoped that some method may be worked out that will give the laboratory assistant the same consideration now accorded dispensary, nurses, and surgical assistants.

In closing this report I desire to call attention to the very efficient assistance rendered by Maj. Henry J. Nichols, Medical Corps, United States Army and Capt. Felix R. Hill, Medical Corps, United States Army, during the period that they have been on duty in the laboratory.

Cases of typhoid diagnosed at Department Laboratory No. 2, Mills Building, El Paso Tex., from Aug. 1, 1916, to Jan. 1, 1917.