The Public Health Service, therefore, stands in the same relationship to this work as other official agencies, namely; the National Homes for Volunteer Soldiers, the Army, the Navy, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital of the Interior Department. That is to say; it operates independently a system of hospitals for the use of the Director of the Veterans’ Bureau in the care of his beneficiaries. It has no responsibility with regard to meeting the demands for hospital facilities and it has no responsibility with regard to the distribution of patients to those hospitals. Its responsibility is limited simply to the operation of such hospitals as the Director desires, and, to the admission of such patients as he may desire to send to the same. When the Public Health Service was suddenly charged with the large and important responsibility for supplying medical care and treatment to veterans of the World War, it proceeded at once to organize, on a commensurate scale, to meet a problem the character of which was unknown and the magnitude of which could only be surmised. The first and greatest problem faced by the Public Health Service was, of course, to determine as soon as possible the character and the magnitude of this problem. In conjunction with the War Risk Insurance Bureau, there was compiled and finally published a public document (481 of the 66th Congress, December 5, 1919). In this document, this entire problem was analyzed, and certain very definite conclusions were stated as to the need for medical and surgical facilities for the proper care and treatment of discharged disabled veterans. It is unnecessary at this time to attempt any analysis of this document, but it is worthy of some comment. It indicated that within two years from the date of its publication there would be needed for patients of the War Risk Insurance Bureau 7,200 beds for general medical and surgical cases, 12,400 beds for tuberculous cases, and 11,060 for neuropsychiatry cases, making a total of 30,660 beds. Recommendations in this document were made for the expenditure of a large sum of money for necessary construction, and a draft of a bill was offered which would appropriate the money for this purpose. The bill contemplated that this money should be expended in annual installments, extending over a period ending June 30, 1923. This document also indicated that the peak of the load, at least for neuropsychiatric and tuberculous disorders, would not be reached for some years. The conclusions reached in this document were the subjects of a good deal of criticism. It was rather generally felt that the facilities which had been provided during the war for the medical care and treatment of soldiers and sailors could be made use of very readily and very satisfactorily in the care of discharged disabled soldiers and sailors at the termination of the war.