Maj. William C. Borden was an Army surgeon in the late 1800s and early 1900s and a colleague of Walter Reed. He dreamed of much better military medical facilities than existed in those days and was infleuntial in the development of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This book is an engaging history-memoir covering Walter Reed Army Medical Center's early history, filled with stories about the people and events that shaped its evolution as an institution. One of the two books published in commemoration of the centennial of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Facsimile reprint of a 1952 work.

Covers important aspects of recruit medicine, such as the medical qualifications process; health promotion and environmental risk management; chronic diseases such as asthma; injury prevention and management; communicable illnesses; behavior, dental, and women's health; and recruit mortality.