"held a place of special importance, not only medical but military, with our troops stationed in all quarters of the globe * * *. Almost overnight, the diseases of the tropics became an urgent specialty, where previously the general pathologist had occasion for no more than superficial knowledge." "The medical personnel of the armed forces," said Colonel Ash, "had to be instructed in at least the basic features as quickly as possible."
The Attack on Tropical Diseases
To meet this emergency, Dr. Sophie Spitz, a brilliant young woman pathologist serving as a contract surgeon, "prepared comprehensive study sets from the large collection of material that had come to the Institute from wide-spread tropical installations, which were distributed particularly to the Army pathologists. In order to reach a wider circle, she prepared other collections of tissues from tropical diseases which went out to nearly all medical schools in the United States and Canada, as a means of alerting students to the possibilities in this special field." 18[1]
This activity was undertaken by the Museum in mid-1943 at the request of the Committee on Pathology of the National Research Council, with funds supplied by the John and Mary Markle Foundation, through the American Foundation for Tropical Medicine. The purpose was to collect and distribute pathological material on tropical diseases to the undergraduate medical schools of the United States and Canada, with the hope that it would stimulate interest and facilitate teaching in tropical medicine. As part of a preliminary survey, a circular letter was sent to the professor of pathology of every American and Canadian school of medicine, listing the material available and asking that only items actually needed should be selected. The materials offered consisted of blocks of tissues of organs affected by a dozen diseases, ranging alphabetically from amebic dysentery to yaws, together with case records and lantern slides or, in some cases, stained sections for microscopic examination.
The response to the letter was enthusiastically affirmative, with 82 schools answering promptly and nearly every school stating that it had need for all the items listed. Under the direction of Colonel Ash and Dr. Spitz, the Museum prepared and, during the last week of December 1943, sent out to the medical schools 2,312 lantern slides, 1,049 tissue blocks, 324 stained sections of tissue, and 794 sets of clinical records and autopsy protocols. Through these
- ↑ 18 Ash, J. E.: In Memoriam: Sophie Spitz; An Appreciation; 1910-1956. American Journal of Clinical Pathology 30: 553, December 1958.
