Armed Forces Institute of Pathology: Its First Century 1862-1962/Chapter XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
Into the Second Century
In the 99th year of its life, the Institute was partially reorganized to bring into sharper focus the contribution of its various activities to the accomplishment of the threefold mission of consultation, education, and research (fig. 126). It was recognized that the three were inextricably interwoven in the pattern of the everyday work of the departments, divisions, and branches of the Institute, but it was felt nevertheless that the multifarious activities of the Institute should be under continuing examination as to their educational, consultative, and research aspects.
To this end, three members of the staff were designated as secretaries of Education, Research, and Consultation, respectively. In their capacity as Secretaries, the three staff members work under the direct control of the Director, and are charged with the responsibility of keeping the directorate and the Scientific Director of the Institute advised as to the bearing of the work of its several departments upon the three main missions. As expressed in the memorandum outlining the duties and responsibilities of the Secretary of Education, the secretaries are "to maintain constant and close coordination with all Institute activities to determine the latest trends and accomplishments in the education mission." 1[1]
Organisation
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_126.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_126.jpg)
Figure 126.—Threefold mission of the Institute.
H. Fuller, MC, USN), and by the Scientific Director (Dr. Robert E. Stowell), and advised by a scientific advisory board of 18 eminent practitioners of pathology. The affairs of the Institute are conducted in accord with policies determined by the Board of Governors—Lt. Gen. Leonard D. Heaton, The Surgeon General of the Army; Rear Adm. Edward C. Kenney, MC, USN, The Surgeon General of the Navy; and Maj. Gen. Oliver K. Niess, The Surgeon General of the Air Force. The members of the Board of Governors (fig. 128) are, upon occasion, represented by designated alternates—Brig. Gen. Howard W. Doan for the Army; Rear Adm. Allan S. Chrisman for the Navy; and Maj. Gen. Richard L. Bohannon for the Air Force.
Under the immediate control of the directorate is the Executive Officer (Lt. Col. Vernon S. Oettinger, MSC, USA), and five administrative services (fig. 129). These include the Adjutant (Lt. Col. Russell Z. Seidel, MSC, USA),
under whose direction is the Ash Library (Mrs. Ruth Haggerty), which issued more than 13,000 books and journals to patrons, and served nearly 15,000 readers ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_127.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_127.jpg)
Figure 127.—The Institute Organization, 1962.
during the year 1961; the Mail Room, which handled nearly 350,000 letters and 33,000 parcels, and mimeographed nearly 1,900,000 sheets in the year; the preparation of reports and forms, and the reception of foreign nationals, of whom 90, representing 34 countries, were at the Institute as trainees and 704, representing 79 countries, were there as visitors in the year 1961.[2]
Other administrative units reporting to the directorate through the Executive Officer are the Budget and Management Office (Cdr. Heyward E. Hall, MSC, USN), and the Personnel Division (Lt. Col. Walter F. Maybaum, MSC, USA); the Supply and Services Division (Maj. Bryce L. Moschel, MSC, USA), which reported that "shortage of funds for procurement of equipment plagued the Division during the entire year," to such an extent that the equipment replacement program was "practically nonexistent"; and the Technical Liaison Office (1st Lt. John L. Bryant, Jr., USAF, MSC). The Technical Liaison Office issued the monthly "AFIP Letter" to a mailing list of more than 2,300 members of the medical, dental, veterinary, and allied scientific professions, while the ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_128.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_128.jpg)
Figure 128.—The three Surgeons General and the Director, AFIP, participate in the unveiling of a plaque on 19 July 1962. Left to right, Lt. Gen. Leonard D. Heaton, Maj. Gen. Oliver K. Niess, Col. Frank M. Townsend, USAF, MC, and Rear Adm. Edward C. Kenney. The plaque, containing the heart of President Eisenhower's 1955 dedication address, was placed at the main entrance of the Institute.
Editorial Office (Miss Laura A. Gibbs) edited 145 manuscripts for publication or oral presentation; processed 41,000 reprints of articles by members of the Institute staff; and issued a bibliography of their articles and books published in 1961, numbering 91 titles.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_129.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_129.jpg)
Figure 129.—Executive officer and administrative staff. Front row (left to right): Lt. Col. L. J. Neurauter, USAF, VC, Lt. Col. R. Z. Seidel, MSC, USA, Lt. Col. V. P. Verfuerth, MSC, USA, Lt. Col. W. F. Maybaum, MSC, USA, Maj. B. L. Moschel, MSC, USA. Back row (left to right): Maj. O. L. Norrell, Jr., MSC, USA, Lt. T. O. Jordan, MSC, USN, 1st Lt. J. L. Bryant, Jr., USAF, MSC, J. L. Evans, Maj. W. R. Rule, USAF, MSC, Capt. B. P. Chambers, USAF, MSC, Capt. J. R. Green, USAF, MSC. Missing from this photograph is Lt. Col. V. S. Oettinger, MSC, USA, who retired and was replaced by Colonel Verfuerth.
The Four Departments
Of the four departments of the Institute, the largest by far is the Department of Pathology (fig. 130), headed by Dr. Elson B. Helwig as Chief, with Col. Paul C. LeGolvan, MC, USA, as Assistant Chief. As it was organized at the start of the second century of the life of the Institute, the Department consisted of eight professional divisions (fig. 131) and an Administrative Office, under Lt. Col. Nathan Cooper, USAF, MSC, the mission of which was "to give the professional staff the utmost administrative support" (fig. 132). This is accomplished through the Professional Records Service (Maj. Charles B. Broadway, USAF, MSC), the Histopathology Laboratories (Mr. Lee G. Luna), and the Education Office, which provides continuous on-the-job training for staff personnel, and trains technicians from other installations, both civilian and military, in special techniques developed at the Institute. The degree of success that attends these training efforts may be gaged by the fact that, in 1961, 13 members of the laboratory staff applied for and took the examination for certification in histopathology given by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and all 13 passed and were certified.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_130.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_130.jpg)
Figure 130.—Organizational chart, Department of Pathology, 1 February 1962.
Among the techniques used at the Institute is one applied by the late Lawrence W. Ambrogi (fig. 133), Chief of the Histopathology Laboratories, who served the Institute for all but 4 of the 40 years before his sudden death in December 1960. In the last year of his life, Mr. Ambrogi adopted a new technique which makes possible the distribution of microscopic sections by first-class mail at nominal expense and without fear of breakage. The sections are mounted and sealed inside plastic sheets which can be folded, creased, or crumpled without harm to the sections. Upon arrival at destination, the sections may be cut out of the plastic sheet, mounted between glass slides, and examined by microscope in the usual fashion.[3]
The Professional Records Service of the Department of Pathology includes sections for Receiving and Accessions, Tissue Processing, Professional Files, Machine Records, Medical Statistics, and a Library of Medical Records. The Service maintains "vast and voluminous" files of diagnostic information, both in the form of specimens and on diagnostic cards, of which there are in the files literally millions. The system is designed for ready reference to any case, with cards crossfiled and indexed to the etiology or cause of the disease, and to the topography or location of its lesions. There are thus not less than two diagnostic cards crossfiled and indexed to the etiology or cause of the disease, and to the ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_131.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_131.jpg)
Figure 131.—Department of Pathology staff, Professional Divisions. Left to right, front row: Lt. Col. D. C. White, MC, USA, G. H. Klinck, M.D., Capt. A. W. Hilberg, USPHS, Capt. L. S. Hansen, DC, USN, Col. P. C. LeGolvan, MC, USA, E. B. Helwig, M.D., C. H. Binford, M.D., E. B. Smith, M.D., A. M. Silverstein, Ph. D., Maj. P. A. Finck, MC, USA. Center row: Maj. J. Cornyn, USAF, DC, S. H. Rosen, M.D., Capt. W. H. Davidson, USAF, MC, Maj. F. M. Garner, VC, USA, Lt. Col. R. M. Madison, USAF, VC, F. K. Mostofi, M.D., G. F. Bahr, M.D., F. B. Johnson, M.D., H. B. Taylor, M.D., K. M. Earle, M.D. Back row: Capt. K. L. Kraner, USAF, VC, L. C. Johnson, M.D., Cdr. F. G. Steen, MC, USN, Col. T. J. Domanski, USAF, MSC, Lt. Col. E. H. Johnston, MC, USA, V. S. Waravdekar, Ph. D., Col. T. O. Berge, MSC, USA, L. E. Zimmerman, M.D., D. J. Winslow, M.D., Lt. Col. J. F. Metzger, MC, USA, W. C. Manion, M.D. Missing from this photograph are: H. F. Smetana, M.D., R. H. Follis, Jr., M.D., and Col. W. L Thompson, MC, USA (Ret.).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_132.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_132.jpg)
Figure 132.—Administrative staff, Department of Pathology. Left to right, seated: Lt. Col. D. C. Auld, USAF, MC, Maj. C. B. Broadway, USAF, MSC, Lt. Col. N. Cooper, USAF, MSC, B. L. Parnell, D. G. Koelle. Left to right, standing: S. G. Corbett, G. M. Evans, M. S. Attaway, M. Y. Robeson, N. M. Beasley, L. G. Luna.
there being as many as half a dozen cards, or perhaps even more. Under serious consideration, as the second century of life of the Institute began, was discontinuance of the use of punchcards, and adoption of a system by which the millions of "memories" which make up the professional records of the Museum-Institute would be stored and made more readily available by the use of magnetic tape.
Many of these recorded memories are related to the tissues that are handled by the Tissue Processing Section. These specimens are being removed from cumbersome 20-gallon earthenware crock jars and placed in plastic bags. In 1961, despite the collapse of the roof of the Franconia, Va., warehouse wherein many of the specimens are stored, which caused a time loss of 2 months, more than 60,000 specimens were transferred from crocks to bags.
Space, or the lack of it, handicapped the Professional Records Service in several directions. The Professional Files Section, for example, which had paraffin blocks filed in two parts of the main Institute building beside those stored at Franconia, was compelled to seek more space. This was found, with the help of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in the basement of Delano Hall, the headquarters and home for the Walter Reed nurses. The Histopathology Laboratories also were plagued by a shortage of space, with 54 persons ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_133.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_133.jpg)
Figure 133.—Lawrence W. Ambrogi, Chief, Histopathology Laboratories, who served for 36 years.
working in a space originally designed for not more than 35. Under these conditions, the laboratories turn out a load of work which is indicated by the preparation of some 350,000 microslides and the processing and cutting of 60,000 paraffin, celloidin, and frozen blocks per year.
The purpose of these supporting services was, primarily, to relieve the professional staffs of the divisions and branches of the Department of Pathology of detailed custodial and statistical duties, as far as possible. 4[4]
Three of the eight professional divisions of the Department of Pathology had to do with the general and special pathology of groups of diseases — Division A, under Dr. William C. Manion ; Division B, headed by Dr. Lorenz E. Zimmerman; and Division C, by Dr. F. K. Mostofi.
Group A (Dr. Manion, Chief) includes the Cardiovascular Pathology Branch, of which Dr. Manion was also Chief; the Orthopedic Pathology Branch, headed by Dr. Lent C. Johnson; the Hepatic and Pediatric Pathology Branches, of which Dr. Hans F. Smetana was Chief; and two Branches, those of Dermal and Gastrointestinal Pathology, headed by the Chief of the entire Department, Dr. Helwig. 5[5]
Division B was headed by Dr. Lorenz E. Zimmerman, who was also Chief of the Ophthalmic Pathology Branch. The Hematologic Pathology Branch Chief was Dr. George Th. Diamandopoulos, while Dr. Samuel H. Rosen, who had played a leading part in the identification and description of a new disease entity, pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, served as Chief of the Branches of Pulmonary Pathology, and also Mediastinal Pathology, and Ear, Nose, and Throat Pathology. Division B also included the Neuropathology Branch, of which Dr. Kenneth M. Earle was Chief, having succeeded Dr. Webb Haymaker upon his resignation, in 1961, to join the staff of the Ames Research Laboratory in California. Dr. Earle came from the University of Texas School of Medicine at Galveston, where he was a neuropathologist and dean. 6[6]
Dr. F. K. Mostofi was Chief of Division C of General and Special Pathology, and also Chief of the Genitourinary Pathology Branch of that division. The Endocrine and Soft Tissue Pathology Branch was headed by Dr. G. H. Klinck, who took notice of the increasing trend toward sending in specimens from unusual and highly selected cases, only a small minority of which could be handled by form letters of receipt and acknowledgement. The third Branch of the Division, that of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Breast Pathology, was headed by Dr. Herbert B. Taylor, who had succeeded Dr. Robert D. Neubecker at the end of August 1961. 7[7]
The Division of Basic Sciences was the charge of Dr. Frank B. Johnson, who also headed its Histochemistry Branch. Dr. Gunter F. Bahr was Chief of the Biophysics Branch, and Dr. Vaman S. Waravdekar headed the Biochemistry Branch. The Chief of the Immunobiology Branch was Dr. Arthur M. Silverstein. 8[8]
Much of the work of these branches is devoted to investigations in life processes which may not relate immediately to some disease but which provides basic knowledge and understanding. Reminiscent of the pioneering of the Medical Museum in the combination of the camera and the microscope is the work of the Biophysics Branch with the electron microscope and a photometer in determining the mass of biological particles so small that it can be expressed only in terms of a negative fraction of a gram raised to the 12th or even the 18th power — if such words as "mass" and "raised" can be meaningfully applied to anything so infinitesimally small.
Experiments underway in the Immunobiology Branch in the nature of the immunologic response of the mammalian fetus give promise of enlarging the understanding of the response to immunization, improving the comprehension of the pathogenetic features of the processes of fetal infection, and changing the concept of the beginning of the immunologic capability of the infant, which would seem to be at an earlier age than that commonly accepted.
The Radiation Pathology Branch, headed by Lt. Col. David C. White, MC, USA, reported in 1961 on more than 6,500 cases submitted for consultation, the main concern in most instances being a determination of the extent to which radiation contributed to, or was a significant factor in, the cases reviewed. The Radiation Pathology Branch also was a moving force in the creation of the 26th Registry, that of Radiation Pathology, which went into operation in the centennial year of the Institute.
The Division of Military Environmental Pathology was headed by Lt. Col. Edward H. Johnston, MC, USA, who also doubled as chief of its Forensic Pathology Branch. Maj. William R. Rule, USAF, MSC, Legal Counsel to the Institute, was active in the work of this branch, which conducted courses, held seminars, and provided residency training dealing with the many and varied ways in which problems of the law arise in the practice of pathology, For example, as part of the Medical Education for National Defense program, familiarly known as MEND, the Institute sponsored a 3-day symposium on the "Pathology of Trauma," with an attendance of 160 professional registrants from medical schools throughout the United States, and 24 professional registrants from Government agencies other than the Institute. 9[9] The Aerospace Pathology Branch, under Capt. W. Harley Davidson, USAF, MC, is closely allied in its operations with the Joint Committee on Aviation Pathology. The two organizations have similar missions in the pathological investigation of the human factors involved in aircraft accidents — to which is added, in the light of recent developments, pathology in space flight as well.
Since the formation of the Joint Committee, the Aerospace Pathology Branch of the Institute has acted as its headquarters staff. Maj. V. A. Stembridge, the first Chief of the Branch, received the Legion of Merit for his outstanding contribution to aviation pathology. Staff members of the Branch have served as secretaries of the Joint Committee, beginning with Dr. Mostofi, followed by Capt. Murray Ballenger, MC, USN, and then by Maj. F. W. Lovell, who was both Branch Chief of the Aerospace unit and Secretary of the Joint Committee. The same combination of positions was held by Captain Davidson at the beginning of the Institute's second century of life. 10[10]
In the first 6½ years of its operation, Aerospace Pathology Branch personnel assisted in the investigation of 22 military aircraft accidents. In the years 1959-61, 23 civilian accidents were investigated at the request of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Altogether, the Branch has reviewed more than 3,000 cases from fatal aircraft accidents, both civilian and military.
Essential in the accomplishment of the mission of the Branch was the work of the Toxicology Laboratory established in 1956, which has done research in the pathology of the effects of carbon monoxide, hypoxia, alcohol, and drugs upon aircrew members. In November 1961, the Toxicology Laboratory was given the status of a branch under Col. Thaddeus J. Domanski, USAF, MC, as Chief. In the last 2 months of 1961, the first 2 months of its existence as a full-fledged Toxicology Branch, it received for toxicological examination 68 cases growing out of fatal aircraft accidents. 11[11]
Maj. Pierre A. Finck, MC, USA, doubled as Chief of the Wound Ballistics Branch of the Military Environmental Pathology Division, and also as the education officer for the Division, in which capacity 7 lectures and 30 division staff meetings were arranged. Among the guest speakers who gave lectures were Lt. Cdr. John H. Ebersole, first medical officer on the submarine U.S.S. Nautilus, and Capt. Joseph W. Kittenger of the Air Force, first man to jump from a height of more than 100,000 feet.
The Division of Dental and Oral Pathology was headed by Capt. Louis S. Hansen, DC, USN, who had succeeded Col. Joseph L. Bernier when the latter became a major general and head of the Army Dental Corps. Besides giving attention to consultation sought in about 250 cases per month, the Division carried on an active program in research and education. The use of loan materials in the form of microscope study sets and lantern slides was virtually doubled in 1961, as compared with i960, while response to the Division's postgraduate short course on the pathology of the oral regions was such that 60 civilians who applied for the course had to be turned down because of lack of space. 12[12]
The Veterinary Pathology Division was headed by Lt. Col. M. A. Ross, VC, USA, who had succeeded Col. F. D. Maurer upon the latter's transfer in June 1961. The Division consisted of three branches, one on General Veterinary Pathology, of which Colonel Ross was Chief, and the others, on Animal Care and Surgery and X-ray, combined, with Capt. Keith L. Kraner, USAF, VC, as Chief. The work of this Division is ample proof of the error in the opinion that an army without horses would have no need for veterinary services. When it is considered that there are at least 80 diseases which are communicable from the lower animals to man, and that the laboratory animal is a necessary part of research dealing with human diseases, the importance of veterinary knowledge and services becomes apparent. Indeed, research into the maintenance in health of the colonies of laboratory animals becomes the more important since the validity of the results of experimentation may be impaired if the animals used are not healthy specimens. More recently, there have been other calls for veterinary science in the space tests of animals which were an essential preliminary to space flights by man. 13[13]
Newest of the eight divisions of the Department of Pathology is that of Geographic Pathology, of which Dr. Chapman H. Binford is Chief. The assignment of the Division is the study of the peculiarities of disease as affected by topography, climate, food habits, and population of various regions of the earth, with special attention to infectious diseases that might be encountered by persons going into unfamiliar environments. To this end, the Division not only carries on research studies on selected diseases, but also seeks to stimulate the exchange of information among different countries by establishing closer relations with their pathologists.
The Geographic Pathology Division included six branches. Two of these — the Branches of Infectious Diseases and Virology— had been transferred from other divisions in 1961. Under the new organization, Infectious Diseases was assigned to Group Captain R. M. Cross, Royal Air Force, as Chief, and the Virology Branch to Col. T. C. Berge, MC, USA. Two other branches of the Division — those of Geographic Pathology and of Leprosy — are headed by Dr. Binford, Chief of the Division. The other branches of the Division are those of Nutritional Pathology, of which Dr. Richard H. Follis, Jr., is Chief, and of Immunology and Bacteriology, of which Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Joseph F. Metzger, MC, USA, is Chief.
Extramural Monetary Support
The main emphasis of the program in Geographic Pathology is support of investigations of diseases of military importance which are encountered in other countries, an activity which is supported financially by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. 14[14]
Monetary support of Institute research projects from sources outside the Institute increased from $700,000 in i960, to $880,000 in 1961, and was further increased in the centennial year of the Institute to $1,055,000, with an additional $143,000 in prospect. The greater part of this extramural support came from governmental agencies such as the Research and Development Command of the Army, the Veterans' Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but contributions came also from such sources as the National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences, and a variety of societies and foundations devoted to research and education in problems of health and disease for cooperative projects with universities and others.
Scientific and professional aspects of the activities of the Institute and stimulation of, and assistance in, research and education were the principal functions of the Scientific Director (Dr. Robert E. Stowell). The range and extent of the interests of the office are indicated by the degree of participation of the scientific director not only in the work of the Institute, but also in the activities of numerous agencies of governmental and civilian medicine. Thus, he was Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the American Cancer Society on Research on the Pathogenesis of Cancer; editor of the series of monographs of the International Academy of Pathology; and member of the editorial board of the journal Laboratory Investigation.
For practical purposes, and in keeping with his educational, research, and consultation functions, the Scientific Director supervised the activities of the offices of the Secretaries — Capt. Binning P. Chambers, USAF, MSC, Education Secretary; Lt. Col. Lloyd J. Neurauter, USAF, VC, Research Secretary; and Maj. Charles B. Broadway, USAF, MSC, Consultation Secretary.
In the Institute's centennial year, the office of the Education Secretary issued the first unit of a planned catalog of the educational aids and activities of the Institute. Ultimately, the completed catalog will include listings of lantern slide and microscopic slide teaching sets, loan sets prepared for the clinicopathologic conference, video tapes, moving pictures, audio-aids such as magnetic tapes and long-playing records, and exhibits produced not only by the Department of Pathology and the Office of the Scientific Director, but also by the American Registry of Pathology, the Medical Illustration Service, and the Medical Museum. 15[15]
The American Registry of Pathology (fig. 134) entered the 40th year of the registry movement, and the centennial year of the Institute, with 25 registries, to which there were added, before the year's end, two others, that of Radiation Pathology and Geographic Pathology. The unique organization of the registries, with their facility for followup study of die natural history of disease processes, made it possible in 1961 to conduct over 50 research projects, involving more than 6,000 cases, over 80 percent of which were contributed through the registries. 16 [16]
The Medical Illustration Service (Herman Van Cott, Chief; Morris Goldberg, Assistant Chief), entered the centennial year of the Institute with an organization of four divisions — Scientific Illustration (William E. Macy. Chief) ; Photography (Julius Halsman, Chief); Printing (Frank Dillon, Chief); and Training Aids (William W. Nicholls, Chief) (fig. 135). In the course of a year, the Scientific Illustration Division produced more than 6,000 illustrations for use in manuals and graphic aids, and for supplying the Medical Illustration Library with pictorial material. Much of this material originates with the Photography Division, which turns out some 250,000 items in a year. The Printing Division produces the fascicles of the "Atlas of Tumor Pathology," the demand for which is so great that it has been necessary to add a nightshift in the printing plant. The Training Aids Division uses pictorial and three- dimensional materials in the production of prototypes of materials to be used in training personnel. 17[17]
The centennial year of the Medical Musuem with Col. John W. Sheridan, MSC, USA, as Curator (fig. 136), was marked by another move — from Temporary Building S across 7th Street to the same "old red brick" which had been ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_134.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_134.jpg)
Figure 134.—American Registry of Pathology staff. Left to right, seated: Capt. E. L. Howes, Jr., MC, USA, Maj. H. H. Shamdin, MC, USA. Left to right, standing: Capt. H. M. Price, MC, USA, R. DiPretoro, Capt. A. W. Lazar, USAF, MC, Capt. A. B. Cooper, USAF, MC.
its home for 60 years up to 1947. This time, however, there was a very real difference in conditions from those which had prevailed when the Museum moved out 15 years before. Then, the building, in anticipation of its coming evacuation by the Library of Medicine and the Institute of Pathology, received very limited expenditures for maintenance and virtually nothing for improvements. In 1962, with the decision that the Museum should reoccupy its old home, there went the decision to preserve the building for its historic and architectural interest. The General Services Administration, which is responsible for its upkeep, has undertaken an immediate program of limited rehabilitation to make the building suitable for the Museum, and a longer range plan for interior improvements, such as elevators and plumbing, adequate to permit the installation of some of the histopathology laboratories now housed in the main building. Neither the short-range repairs nor the long-range program of ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_135.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_135.jpg)
Figure 135.—Medical Illustration Service staff. Left to right, seated: Herman Van Cott, Morris M. Goldberg. Left to right, standing: Julius Halsman, William E. Macy, Frank J. Dillon, Jr., William W. Nicholls.
improvement comtemplates alteration of the fundamental architecture of the building, which in and of itself is a true museum piece.
The Museum will occupy the two main exhibit halls on the second floor, with their balconies and their two-story-high ceilings, and one main exhibit hall on the first floor. Office space in the building will be occupied by parts of the Professional Records Service and other offices which will be moved from the main building of the Institute. It is anticipated that when the moves are completed, approximately 100 of the total Institute staff of 650 will be located in the rehabilitated Museum building, with a corresponding decrease in the population pressure on the facilities of the main building.
In distance, the move back into its oldtime quarters (fig. 137) was the shortest of the several moves of the Museum in its hundred years of life, distance, however, is no measure of the difficulties involved in scheduling such a move, packing the thousands of items that are to go, moving exhibits and display cases, setting them up in their new locations, unpacking specimens, and restoring them to their proper places—and doing all this in a building ![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_136.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_136.jpg)
Figure 136.—Curator and staff of Medical Museum, 1962. Left to right, seated: Col. J. W. Sheridan, MSC, USA, H. R. Purtle. Left to right, standing: G. T. Harrell, 1st Lt. W. R. Schafer, MSC, USA, H. E. Demick.
still undergoing renovation without shutting down the Museum which, in 1961, received 685,000 visitors.[18] This attendance reached its peak on 26 February 1962, the day on which Washington welcomed Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., after his triple orbit around the earth, and when more than 14,000 persons visited the Museum.
Scope of the Institute's Activities
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_137.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_137.jpg)
Figure 137.—This building, erected for the Army Medical Museum and the Army Medical Library in 1887 was in part occupied by the Museum and its successor, the Institute, until 1955. The Museum and certain offices of the Institute returned to this home in the centennial year 1962.
11 postgraduate short courses offered by the Department of Pathology and attended in 1961 by 1,105 qualified students. The courses were continued in 1962-63, with such subjects as an introduction to research methods, the pathology of tropical and other exotic diseases, the application of histochemistry to pathology, the pathology of diseases of laboratory animals, forensic dentistry, the pathology of the oral regions, orthopedic pathology, ophthalmic pathology, and forensic pathology.
The most widely attended feature of the program was the week of annual lectures by Institute staff members, 42 of which were given in 5 days, with a daily attendance of 256.
Other education activity in 1961 included the loan of nearly 900 sets of clinicopathological conference sets and more than 4,000 microscopic slide teaching sets, and the circulation of nine lectures on tapes to reach wider audiences.
Emphasis on Research
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_138.jpg/400px-The_Armed_Forces_Institute_of_Pathology_-_Figure_138.jpg)
Figure 138.—The Institute's expanding research program. The table closes with 1961 but 1962 saw a further increase in the value of this outside support to more than $1 million.
financial support from sources outside the Institute, as is shown in figure 138. Where there was but one such project in 1955, the year in which the new building was first occupied, and but four in 1956, the first full year of occupancy, there were 40 such projects in 1961. The number and scope of such activities give promise of further growth as more funds are made available and as the widening field of knowledge affords an expanding area of contact between the known and the unknown—the area which is the hunting ground for research.
In one of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology lectures, recorded on tape, Brig. Gen. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, MC, USA (Ret.), discussed "Research Frontiers for Future Investigations." Looking forward to what might be the ultimate in research into the structure and composition of matter, General Bayne-Jones said:
The ultimate particles which enter into combination to make hydrogen and iron also enter into the construction of bone and muscle, blood, and nerve, and brain. In studying the constitution of atoms we are studying the fundamental stuff of the universe, of suns and mountains and seas—the black carbon of coal, the green chlorophyll of grass, the red hemoglobin of blood. Indeed, nature knows no such specializations as physics, chemistry, biology, and other categories into which we fit our fragments of knowledge. She knows only the particles and their incessant interactions as expressed in phenomena such as magnetism, radiation, life, and death. 19[19]
In search for broader knowledge and deeper insight into the nature of these "ultimate particles," the century-old Institute is one of the forward observation posts— an organization rarely equipped for the pursuit of the elusive bits of information which can, in time, lead to a better understanding of the causes and course, and the prevention and cure, of disease.
Writing in 1928, Dr. Esmond R. Long, author of a standard history of pathology, and himself a pathologist of distinction, ventured the opinion that "there is no present warrant for predicting any change so revolutionary as the cellular doctrine of the nineteenth century * * *. There is much to indicate that the modern spirit of pathology is expressed in organization and that present advance is being brought about more through well designed administration than that individual capacity which proved so fertile in the preceding century * * *. Capable administration and the recognition of fruitful projects, although less dramatic, have thus apparently become as important in the furtherance of knowledge in pathology as individual investigative originality." 20[20]
Writing one-third of a century later, in his "History of American Pathology," published in the centennial year of the Institute, Dr. Long paid tribute to the Institute in terms that are reminiscent of his earlier description of the kind of organization which would become increasingly important in augmentation of knowledge of pathology. 21[21]
In like recognition of the value of the Institute, the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, official publication of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, devoted a special issue to the Institute as it began its "second century of distinguished service." The special centennial commemoration issue contained seven scientific papers prepared by 16 members of the Institute start and scientists who had worked at the Institute. 22[22] This recognition of the Institute was typical of that of other publications in the medical field, including International Ophthalmology Clinics which dedicated its June 1962 issue to the Institute's 100th Anniversary. The issue, edited by Dr. Lorenz E. Zimmerman of the Institute staff, contains 16 articles dealing with tumors of the eye and adnexa. 23[23]
A further international note in the recognition of the Institute's centenary was supplied by a special commemorative issue of what is probably the oldest internationally recognized journal in the field of pathology- — Virchows Archiv, founded in 1847 by Rudolf Virchow, edited by him until 1902, and continued thereafter as a journal of general pathology, anatomy, physiology, and clinical medicine. In its June 1962 issue, dedicated to the "hundert Jahre" of the Institute, this famous Archiv published nine papers by 16 authors of the Institute staff, together with a brief summation of the history of the Museum-Institute by Prof. Dr. E. Uehlinger of Zurich, Switzerland, co-editor of the journal, and a Foreword by Col. Frank M. Townsend, The Director of the Institute. 24[24]
"It is with a sense of anticipation that we enter the second century of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology," the Director wrote. "The sum of knowledge gained from the study of pathology will continue to enhance the welfare of men and make it possible for those of the Medical Fraternity of the world to unite their many efforts for the well-being of all."
The Museum-Institute has done much in the first century of its life to add to "the sum of knowledge." As the frontiers of medical knowledge continue to expand, as opportunity for fruitful research is enlarged, as the apparatus of investigation and the techniques of research and communication improve, there is every reason to anticipate even greater contributions in the second and succeeding centuries.
- ↑ 1 (l) General Orders No. 18, Hq., AFIP, 23 May 1961. (2) Memorandum Number 63, 25 October 1961.
- ↑ Annual Report, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1961, pp. 240-247.
- ↑ (1) Annual Report, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, pp. 79-85. (2) Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, January-February 1961, pp. 79-80, 100.
- ↑ 4 Annual Report, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1961, pp. 182-203.
- ↑ 5 Ibid., pp. 86-97.
- ↑ 6 Ibid., pp. 98-114.
- ↑ 7 'Ibid., pp. 115-126.
- ↑ 8 Ibid., pp. 127-139.
- ↑ 9 ibid., pp. 140-153.
- ↑ 10 Ibid., pp. 143-148.
- ↑ 11 Annual Report, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 1961. pp. 151-153.
- ↑ 12 Ibid., pp. 154-160.
- ↑ 13 Ibid., pp. 161-169.
- ↑ 14 Ibid., pp. I70-181.
- ↑ 15 Ibid., pp. 226-233.
- ↑ 16 Ibid., pp. 226-231.
- ↑ 17 Ibid., pp. 215-225.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 234-239.
- ↑ 19 AFIP tape recording of lecture by Brig. Gen. Stanhope Bayne-Jones.
- ↑ 20 Long, Esmond R.: A History of Pathology. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1928, pp. 275-276.
- ↑ 21 Long, Esmond R.: A History of American Pathology. Springfield, III.: Charles C Thomas. Publisher. 1962, pp. 378-380.
- ↑ 22 American Journal of Clinical Pathology, Special Issue in Commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, volume 38, July 1962.
- ↑ 23 International Ophthalmology Clinics, volume 2, June 1962.
- ↑ 24 Virchow's Archiv for pathologische Anatomic und Physiologic und fur klinische Medizin, volume 335, Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Gottingen; Heidelberg, June 1962.