In the course of the debate, Representative Lyman, of Massachusetts, expressed the views of an informed layman on the state of the medical art and the contributions of the Museum to medical progress. "Most of the progress"
in medicine and surgery, he said, "has been made during the last half century, and the next fifty years promise a great advance * * *. There is no subject more baffling, and yet it is yielding to study. Already the studies of disease have rendered it highly probable that these plagues are caused by the fertilization of microscopic germs within the body; so that these diseases are a death struggle between man and a parasitic fungus. But already we discern a hope that these germs may be used for inoculation and may protect us from such diseases, just as vaccination protects against smallpox."
"These profound studies, so essential to the welfare of our people, are carried on under the fostering care of our National Medical Museum, whose library, now the first in the world, and whose not less admirable collection of military pathology are placed at the disposal of all investigators."
After an hour's vigorous debate, H.R. 48 was passed by a vote of 181 to 23. Transmitted to the Senate, the bill was recommended for passage by the Committee, which reported its action through Senator Lott Morrill of Vermont, and was passed without objection. On 3 March, the last day of the session, President Arthur reported to Congress that, on the day before, he had signed the bill, which thereby became law. 12[1]
The bill, as finally passed, authorized the construction of a brick and metal building upon the government reservation in the vicinity of the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, the exact site to be selected by a commission composed of the Secretary of War, the Architect of the Capitol, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian. The building was to be in accordance with plans and specifications submitted by The Surgeon General of the Army and approved by the above Commission. Construction was to be under the direction and superintendence of the Secretary of War, and at a cost not to exceed $200,000.13[2]
John Shaw Billings Becomes Curator
During the years in which the matter of a new home for those institutions was before Congress, a noteworthy change in the organization and personnel of the Museum and Library took place when, on 28 December 1883, the two were consolidated into one division to be known as the Museum and Library
