By the regulations of 1571, the barbers was obliged to provide the army and navy with the required number of feldshers in the event of mobilization and wars.
But since no special regulations on any kind of qualification existed, this also explains why the Swedish Army's medical care for such a long time and to such an extent was handled by registered or immigrated more or less unskilled German feldshers.
That this examination, however, left much to be desired, appears from a letters patent from 1685, in which it is stated:[2] då Vi förnimme, att barberareämbetet icke härtilldags varit vandt att med samma vikt och sorgfällighet examinera de mästare, som antagas vid vår milis till lands och vatten, som dem hvilka sig i Stockholm nedersätta, hvilket Oss sällsamt förekommer, likasom vore det mindre angeläget att välja och utse välerfarna kirurger för så många tusende Våra brafva officerare och redliga krigsmän, som våga lif och blod för fäderneslandet - - - så befalle Vi, att hädanefter skall brukas samma stränghet och maner i förhören och profven med alla de barberare, som skola antagas vid milisen till lands och vatten, som öfligt är med de andra[2] when we perceive that the barber's office has not at this time been accustomed to examine with the same weight and care the masters who are admitted to our militia to land and water, as those who settle in Stockholm, which occurs to us strangely, just as it would be less important to choose and appoint experienced surgeons for so many thousands of our brave officers and honest warriors, who dare life and blood for the fatherland - - - so we commanded that henceforth the same severity and manners should be used in the interrogations and rehearsals with all the barbers who are to be admitted by the militia to land and water, who are common with the others The following year, the barber's office under the name Societas chirurgica received its first royal regulations with the obligation to train feldshers to the needs of the country.
During Charles XII's wars, however, it proved impossible for the surgical society to provide the army with the required number of feldshers, why even the resort was resorted to sending students directly to undergo their lessons in the school of war and graduate before a collegium chirurgicum castrense, whose first president became the king's physician Samuel Skragge.
Even in qualitative terms, the military medical service continued to be very deficient despite all the repeated tightening of regulations.
It is true that one or more scientifically trained surgeon were sometimes employed at the field hospitals, but since these usually left the military service after the end of the war, the improvements they made were of a temporary nature.
[2] By letters patent of 6 August 1806, however, the Swedish military medical service underwent one of the most important and radical changes, when it was stipulated that all surgeons employed in the army in peace and war would constitute a special establishment, militarily organized and subordinate under its own, only before the king responsible chief; he would be a member of both the War College and the Collegium medicum (National Swedish Board of Health).
The more detailed regulatory provisions with stricter requirements for education and more were issued in 1808 during the ongoing Finnish-Russian war, which the new organization unfortunately did not have time to implement.
Under the fresh impression of the said war, proposals were made at the Riksdag in 1810 for strong measures to counteract the noted errors in the field administration.
Numerous partial improvements during the early 20th century had been made for the initial transformation of the Swedish Army Medical Corps and the sanitation system.
In this way, the top management of health care in the Land Defense (Lantförsvaret) and the command of the surgeons employed by the same had been arranged in a more uniform manner.
Battalion surgeons, 2 classes with higher and lower salaries and the rank of captain and lieutenant, generally performed the daily duty (medical care, etc.).
Field surgeon students, 2 classes with different salaries and the rank of lieutenant and underlöjtnant, were commanded for duty, when the need arose.