Among the units organized were: Ten general hospitals; 8 special hospitals; 6 convalescent hospitals; 3 ship hospitals (one of which, the Llandovery Castle, was sunk by a German submarine); 2 laboratory units; 4 sanitary sections; 1 medical stores; 1 regimental depot and training school; 7 administrative units for training areas.
The following table, taken from the official report of the Ministry, shows the strength of the Canadian Army Medical Corps on June 1 of successive years and on November 30, 1918:
In connection with the medical service, and yet comprising a separate and certainly a new feature of military organization, was the Canadian Army Dental Corps, which was developed to extraordinary dimensions. Undoubtedly thousands of young Canadians had never had their teeth troubles properly attended to until they entered the army.
The Dental Corps was organized within a few months after the first contingent had gone overseas, early in 1915, in fact. The organization was under the direction of the Director of Dental Services, Colonel J. A. Armstrong, C. M. G. In France the corps members carried on their work principally at field ambulances, casualty clearing stations, general and stationary hospitals, and at base camps.
On arriving in England every Canadian soldier was obliged to submit to mouth inspection, and, if time permitted, his requirements were attended to there. If the time did not permit, his teeth record followed him over to France, and there, as soon as he found a permanent station, the work was continued and completed. In addition to the general clinics, which handled the bulk of the work, there were special clinics, where dental surgery was practiced and wounds affecting the region around the mouth and jaws were attended to. Here was performed some of the remarkable facial surgery whose development was a special feature of the war.
To combat an epidemic of infectious stomatitis, commonly known as "trench mouth," which at one time affected 10,000 men, the Dental Corps established the Department of Oral Pathology, and as a result of microscopic diagnosis and persistent treatment the disease was finally brought under control.
Summed up, the total number of dental operations from July 15, 1915, till December 31, 1918, amounted to 2,225,442, including 96,713 operations performed on soldiers of Imperial units who chanced to come within the jurisdiction of the Canadian Dental Corps.
On first coming overseas the strength of the Dental Corps was 30 officers, 34 noncommissioned officers, and 40 privates. When the armistice was signed this number had increased to 223 officers, 221 noncommissioned officers, and 238 privates.
No consideration of Canada's war establishment, as developed during the great world struggle, can be complete without a few words devoted to Canada's naval service.