in 1884). The officers known as purveyors, who were responsible for medical provisioning, were formed into a separate Purveyors' Department by a Royal Warrant of 1861; nine years later it was merged into the Control Department, and later became part of the Army Service Corps. In 1857, in response to the Crimean debacle, a Royal Commission had been appointed for the improvement of sanitary conditions in Army barracks and hospitals; it recommended (among other things) the establishment of an Army Medical School, which was set up in 1860 at Fort Pitt Hospital before moving in 1863 to the new Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Netley outside Southampton. Netley functioned as a general hospital, but much of the army's medical work continued to be carried out at a regimental level. At the time a regiment of 1,044 men would have a medical staff of one surgeon and two assistants (with an additional assistant being appointed if the regiment was stationed abroad, so as to allow the senior assistant to remain at home with the companies appointed to the depot). The regimental basis of appointment for MOs continued until 1873, when a coordinated army medical service was set up. To join, a doctor needed to be qualified, single, and aged at least 21, and then undergo a further examination in physiology, surgery, medicine, zoology, botany and physical geography including meteorology, and also to satisfy various other requirements (including having dissected the whole body at least once and having attended 12 midwifery cases); the results were published in three classes by the Army Medical School. In 1884 the medical officers of the Army Medical Department were brought together with the quartermasters who provided their supplies to form the Army Medical Staff, which was given command of the Medical Staff Corps (which consisted entirely of other ranks). Nevertheless, there was much unhappiness in the Army Medical Service in the following years as medical officers did not have military rank but "advantages corresponding to relative military rank" (such as choice of quarters, rates of lodging money, servants, fuel and light, allowances on account of injuries received in action, and pensions and allowances to widows and families). They had inferior pay in India, excessive amounts of Indian and colonial service (being required to serve in India six years at a stretch), and less recognition in honours and awards. They did not have their own identity as