[This tape was duplicated by Erickson Archival for the National Library of Medicine, June 2004. NLM call number HF 1645] [War Department Film Bulletin F.B. NO. 217. MCMXLVII] [Army Medical Laboratories] With the American soldier, goes American medicine. Backing him up, by his side, with him in his advance. In wartime and in peace, the Medical Department carries on. Fighting disease, healing, and rehabilitating the sick and wounded and constantly working to search out disease vectors to prevent, detect, and control epidemics. To pursue this mission successfully, the Medical Department was backed up by a far-flung network of laboratories stretching from north to south, from east to west. Clinical, public health and research laboratories were required everywhere. Diseases new to the Army doctor were being encountered. New diagnostic procedures, methods of treatment and control, had to be developed and evaluated. Operation and combat under extreme heat and cold produced problems that were a challenge to the Medical Department and its laboratories. Behind this vast medical laboratory organization, which followed the armies to every distant outpost in our fighting front, were the many divisions and services of the Surgeon General's office. Although the laboratory division was concerned with every aspect of medical laboratory operation, outstanding service was contributed by other divisions of the preventive medicine service. as well as the training and hospital divisions, the personnel and supply services, the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School, and the Army Institute of Pathology. These organizations represented a coordinated effort which directed the operations of the Army's medical laboratories. The first big job was to train field and hospital laboratory units as well as technical personnel. For overseas assignments alone, 217 general hospitals, 196 station hospitals, 91 evacuation hospitals, and 99 field hospitals had to be organized and trained. This unit training was conducted at Camp Barkeley, Texas, Camp Crowder, Missouri, Carlisle Barrracks, Pennsylvania, Camp Sibert, Alabama, Fort Lewis, Washington, and Camps Grant and Ellis in Illinois. In addition to the overseas need, hospital and laboratory facilities in the zone of interior had to be expanded. General hospitals increased from a total of 4 to 65. 56 regional hospitals were established, 26 for the Army's service forces, and 30 for the Army air forces. 300 station hospitals were required, 142 for the Army's service forces, and 158 for the Army air forces. In addition there were ten service command laboratories. The Medical Department was faced with the enormous job of staffing, training, and equipping these various installations for their wartime responsibility. Enlisted personnel receive training at the Medical Department Enlisted Technicians Schools, the MDETS, located at Fitzsimmons General Hospital and nine other general hospitals in addition to the Army medical center. These men and women became highly specialized medical laboratory technicians whose loyal and able wartime record merits the highest praise. Prominent civilian medical schools throughout the country contributed to the training of medical laboratory officers. Sanitary corps officers, though not doctors, are scientists in their own right. This new officer corps was the group of scientists who directed the bacteriology, biochemistry, parasitology, serology, and entomology sections of our laboratories. They made significant contributions to the high level of research work at the Army laboratories. In the zone of interior, there were four principal types of medical laboratories: the service command labs and the general, regional, and station hospital laboratories. Public health laboratory responsibilities were delegated to the ten service command laboratories. Each service command had one of these public health-type laboratories except the large Ninth Service Command which had two labs. One at Fort Lewis, Washington and one at Monterey, California. In New York, the Second Service Command Laboratory served an area which included New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The service command laboratories were designed to supplement the epidemiological, sanitary, and diagnostic facilities not provided by other Medical Department laboratories. They investigated outbreaks of disease, inspected facilities, and inspected personnel. Their staff included trained bacteriologists, parasitologists, entomologists, and other specialists. In the bacteriology section, water samples are examined for potability. Service command laboratories perform such examinations for headquarters units, camps under construction, and other installations not equipped to do such jobs. Here, the lab technicians are searching for dysentery-producing bacteria. This group of specimens might have come from an epidemic of bacillary dysentery. Stool cultures are examined in an attempt to find the causative agent. In the serology section of the second service command laboratory, it was not uncommon to make as many as two thousand serologic tests for syphilis a day. One of the main functions of the service command laboratory was to make serological and other evaluation studies. These consisted of sending known specimens to hospital laboratories in the service command. When the reports came back, the service command laboratory could determine the quality of the work performed. Food for Army consumption had to meet high public health standards. So to the veterinary section were assigned such duties as the examination of milk, other dairy products, and meats. Some of the most interesting and exciting detective work of the service command laboratory was performed in its chemistry and toxicology section. In instances where illness or death may have occurred under questionable circumstances, blood and other body fluids were examined for alcohol content and the presence of poisonous metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic. You can see then that the service command labs were the Army counterpart of state, county, and city health department laboratories with responsibilities that were even broader than those of their civilian equivalent. The remaining three types of Army medical labs in the zone of interior were primarily clinical. The general hospital laboratory, the most complete and specialized of these, required expansion because of the problem cases referred to these hospitals from overseas. Cases of schistosomiasis, amebiasis, hookworm, and other parasitic diseases as well as orthopedic and other surgical problems were being returned to the zone of interior. Cases of hepatitis and wound infections requiring long-term care and investigation necessitated the use of newly developed diagnostic procedures. New drugs have come into use since the beginning of the war and new methods were required to determine their effectiveness against pathogenic bacteria. New methods had to be developed to determine drug levels and to ascertain optimum concentrations required for combatting specific infections. An additional problem arose in the field of tissue diagnosis. The situation was particularly acute because the shortage of pathologists made impossible the adequate staffing of even the general hospitals. To effect an economical use of the use of the small number of pathologists available, especially those expert in the diagnosis of tumors, nineteen histopathologic centers were established, most of them in the larger and strategically-located general hospitals. Close communication was maintained between these histopathologic centers and the Army Institute of Pathology. By this means, consultation assistance on such vital problems as cancer diagnosis was provided by each hospital installation in the zone of interior. The third type of laboratory in the zone of interior was in the regional hospital which was concerned principally with cases originating in the Z.I. The regional hospitals arose from conveniently located station hospitals and provided clinical services complete in every respect. The procedures observed here at Fort Jay are representative of the work done in most regional hospital laboratories. To provide qualified technicians to staff these laboratories as well as those of station hospitals, on-the-job training was often given. The fourth type of ZI lab was the station hospital lab. Here, the range of procedures performed varied greatly and was determined by the size and location of the hospital. In most of the larger station hospital laboratories, a small scale bacteriology, serology, chemistry, and pathology service was provided in addition to the routine clinical pathology. So the Army medical laboratories, trained and developed in the zone of interior, went to war to face the stress of battle conditions overseas. Although constant revisions and improvisations were necessary to meet the conditions of a fluid, global-type warfare, the model overseas medical laboratory organization is presented as a guide in war department manual 8-5, Medical Department Units of a Theater of Operations. [Medical Department Units of a Theater of Operations] The Mediterranean theater presents a good example of planned, efficient laboratory organization in a theater of operation. In the combat zone, the evacuation hospital laboratory provides facilities sufficient for emergency and routine clinical pathology. In Italy, the Eighth Evacuation Hospital was equipped with facilities for qualitative urine analysis, gross and microscopic examination of feces, hematology including blood typing and crossmatching, hemoglobin determination, and malaria diagnosis. The laboratory was also able to perform dark field examinations and the simpler tests on spinal fluid. Although field manual 8-5 places the field hospital in the communication zone, in the Mediterranean and some of the other theaters, field hospitals were utilized in the combat zone as elements in the chain of evacuation. The 15th, assigned to the Mediterranean theater, is representative of such a hospital and its laboratory. Regardless of their assignment, field hospitals held their patients for short periods only. Therefore, the range of lab procedures was limited. The mobile laboratory in the field, the medical laboratory, supported the field and evacuation hospitals as well as providing facilities for combat and other non-medical service organizations. This laboratory could be assigned either to an Army or to a communication zone. The medical laboratory is composed of a headquarters and five professional sections which make up a base stationary laboratory. Designed primarily as a field public health laboratory, it performs epidemiological studies, investigations, and surveys. It is concerned also with routine serology, bacteriology, and pathology as well as water analyses, examination of meat, food, and dairy products which are carried out for all types of field units requiring such services . To serve these units, a lab courier jeep system was worked out. After making his rounds of the hospitals and dispensaries, the courier brings specimens to the second medical laboratory. Here, in the chemistry section of the base stationary laboratory, beverages are being analyzed. In the bacteriology section, tubes of media are being prepared for water analysis. The second clinical laboratory well illustrates the versatility of such an installation. Epidemiological and laboratory studies of the distribution of shigella, salmonella, and typhoid infections were undertaken. Army and civilian food handlers were surveyed for intestinal pathogens. When examinations in the various sections have been completed, the reports are distributed by the lab courier. The medical laboratory also maintains mobile units. This laboratory truck was the headquarters for the study of an epidemic of infectious hepatitis. These mobile units could also be used to supplement, temporarily, the services of a hospital laboratory. The medical laboratory also served the station hospitals, usually located in the communication zone. In the larger station hospitals, the medical core officer devoting full time to the laboratory was assigned as chief of service. Because more definitive treatments are given here, facilities are more complete than most found in the evacuation and field hospitals and bacteriological, chemical, and immunological examinations can be performed. The pathology section of the larger station hospitals prepares its own specimens and provides complete pathological service. However, the most complete clinical laboratory facilities in the theater are found in the general hospitals. Patients are referred here from the evacuation, field, station, and other hospitals for a more specialized treatment. The greater variety of clinical material necessitated a larger and more complete laboratory. Here in the pathology section, an emergency diagnosis is to be made on a frozen tissue section. The pathologist examines the slides and can render an immediate diagnosis. Slide tests are used for the identification of the dysentery- producing shigellas and salmonellas. Tube agglutination tests for typhoid fever, brucellosis, and other infections, diptheria virulence tests, anaerobic cultures, ameoba and fungus cultures, and tests for bacterial resistance to drugs can be made here. In the general hospital, the chemistry section is prepared to perform cholesterol, calcium, creatinine, and uric acid determination in addition to such commonly requested determinations as NPN in sugar. The other copper sulfate technique for the blood specific gravity is being used to assist in the clinical management of shock. Where a large concentration of hospitals is required, an economy of administrative and professional assistants is affected by the organization of a hospital center. Special responsibilities are delegated to each hospital. For instance, one general hospital performs all the bacteriology and serology required by all the general hospitals in the center. In England, the 12th hospital center was composed of the 55th and several other general hospitals. The laboratory of the 55th was superbly equipped. Here a tissue section is being prepared for microscopic examination. Over here, anaerobic roaches are being examined for bacterial growth. Blackout curtains on the windows permitted lab work 24 hours a day. Complete as the general hospital's laboratory service was in Italy and the other theaters, there was still a need for a higher echelon laboratory to perform the more complicated bacteriological, toxicological, and other examinations and to conduct field and laboratory investigations of important medical, veterinary, and sanitary problems. This need was fulfilled by the medical general laboratory, which provided facilities comparable to those of the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School, and the Army Institute of Pathology. One medical general laboratory was assigned to each of the four major theaters. For example, the 15th was assigned to the Mediterranean theater. Though the mission of the laboratory was primarily epidemiological, clinical and research problems were also investigated. The theater blood bank, which was part of the laboratory, supplied most of the blood used in the theater. These blood chests are being loaded for truck shipment to a forward area. Let's let the commanding officer of the 15th describe the work of this laboratory. Officer: "The work of all units and those it serves is integrated by the Office of the Surgeon of the Mediterranean theater of operation. That work consists of diagnostic procedures for support and supervision of the other laboratory units." Officer: "Epidemiological studies, as they are indicated and researched. Our main tasks in research have been malaria and Atibrine therapy, gas gangrene, shock, and jaundice." As a theater diagnosyic center, outstanding field and laboratory researches and investigations emanate from the medical general laboratories by virtue of their specially selected staff and the range of equipment and supplies allotted to them. In the 15th medical general laboratory, research on the Rickettsial disease Q fever produced data upon which an entirely new concept of the epidemiology of Q fever is now based. Officers and enlisted technicians from other medical laboratories were referred to the medical general laboratories for short periods of training in special fields. Here, the pathologist is performing an autopsy for an audience consisting of medical officers from the clinical services and laboratory officers assigned for training. In the biochemistry section, important studies on infectious hepatitis and the use of Atibrine, quinicrine, in malaria were made. Other sections including pathology also assisted in these studies. The bacteriology section contributed significant studies in the field of the intestinal pathogen. Several new shugella and salmonella species were discovered by this laboratory. As a theater diagnostic center, it covered the entire field of tissue and clinical pathology. Because of the amount of research work conducted by the medical general labs, the animal house constituted an important part of the laboratory. Attached to the 15th medical general laboratory, was one of the new [] medical arts detachments. These units did all the photographic and illustrative work involved in making up epidemiological charts and in recording unusual surgeries, injuries, and diseases peculiar to the countries in which our troops were stationed. By means of courier service to nearby hospitals and periodic inspections of all medical laboratory units, the 15th medical general lab was able to maintain intimate contact with all the medical lab installations in the theater. The laboratory also maintained close communication with the Surgeon General's office, the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School, and the Army Institute of Pathology. This was the general plan of the laboratory service designed for a theater of operations. However, particular epidemiological problems such as Jap B encephalitis, hepatitis, schistosomiasis, and dysentery required more detailed investigation. Therefore, missions were sent out by the Army Epidemiological Board, such as the one sent to Italy in 1945 to investigate the increasing problem of diptheria. To combat typhus, the United States of America Typhus Commission established its laboratories in Cairo and dispatched observers to all parts of Europe. During the typhus epidemic in Naples, teams from the Typhus Commission assisted in the control of the epidemic. Malaria was a problem as the troops moved across North Africa and into Italy and the neighborhing islands. So Malaria Survey and Control Units were dispatched to operate with the Army. Actvities of this unit in Corsica were typical of the work. Every preventive measure was used including DDT being dispersed by a plane. In the Pacific, malaria was an even greater problem, one complicated by the huge and widely separated areas which had to be kept under observation by the Malaria Survey and Control Unit. The Solomon Islands campaign proved a severe test for these units. They searched for new mosquito vectors and determined their habitats. The men took Atibrine, used repellents, hung nets. There were many breeding places of the Anopheles on the road to Japan. To control them, every method of spraying, ducting, oiling, and draining was used. [USA Typhus Commission, Official Business Only, No Thru Road. Typhus Area, Out of Bounds] Typhus of the scrub or mice variety proved a serious disease hazard in the Pacific and the India/Burma theater. Since much less was known about this form of typhus, extensive studies had to be made of the clinical disease. The [] causing it, and the animal hosts and insect vectors carrying it. Rodents and other mammals as well were investigated as the animal reservoir for this disease. Ticks, mice, and other surface insects of the common wild animal were studied as possible vectors. Studies of birds and their surface parasites were also undertaken. These extensive studies added not only to our knowledge of scrub typhus, but also our knowledge of the habits of possible vectors of other diseases. Study of the insect vectors of scrub typhus involved serious hazards since the disease is a dangerous one and occasionally carries a high mortality. Field investigators had to observe strict precautions to avoid exposure to the mice which carry the disease. In general, laboratories in the Pacific area met more problems, but because of the nature of the campaign, were able to devote more time to investigate such diseases as schistosomiasis,scrub typhus,skin diptheria, filiarisis, fungus infection, hookworm, and dysentery. The Pacific counterpart of field and hospital laboratories did not differ greatly from the type installations we saw active in Europe, except in that they were modified to diagnose these newly encountered diseases. The 18th Medical General Laboratory stationed in Hawai'i, by virture of a highly trained staff and specialized equipment, was able to contribute significantly to our knowledge of the epidemiology and diagnosis of these diseases. [Epidemiology Branch, W-3] The Epidemological Branch of this laboratory worked in close cooperation with the theater surgeon's office. Essential studies of disease hazards were made immediately after enemy forces were neutralized and an island was secure. But before an island command was established. These included an investigation of the water supply, insect vectors, and diseases current among the enemy forces and native population. Such studies, known as medical and sanitary surveys, were made in Saipan, Peleliu, Anguar, and other islands. They served practical immediate and future purposes. The 18th Medical General Lab was capable of such extensive epidemioloigcal and laboratory operations as those required for investigation of the Hawaiian influenza epidemic of 1945. Here, the procedure for the lab diagnosis for influenza is demonstrated. A special study of pollinosis or hay fever was required because new hazards in the form of plant pollen were encountered. Pollen extracts were prepared by dessication, then made up in solutions to be used for diagnosis and treatment. The evaluation of DDT and other agents in the control of arthropod-borne diseases requires the development of new methods of trapping and rearing of mosquitoes and other insect vectors. Here flies are raised experimentally for this purpose. These and other insects in various stages of development were subjected to the action of new agents. On our way back to the zone of interior, let's stop off at Puerto Rico, headquarters for the Cayman-Caribbean islands comprising the Antilles Department. Those overseas areas organized as departments rather than theaters of operations were served by these department labs which were comparable in size and scope of operations to the service command labs in the zone of interior. These laboratories provided the facilities of not only a service command lab, but those of a histopathologic center as well. Study sets were maintained here for the training of pathologists, and officers and enlisted technicians were given on-the-job training. Early in the war, malaria and dengue were problems in the Caribbean, and filariasis was a potential danger. The entomologist played an important role in helping to control these diseases. The laboratory performed a tremendous volume of routine survey and evaluation serological work. In Washington, to the Office of the Surgeon General, the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School, and the Army Institute of Pathology came data, specimens, reports, cultures from all over the world. From India, a slide of a suspected tumor. From Hawai'i comes the report to the SGO of an outbreak suspected of being influenza. From Puerto Rico, cultures from an outbreak of dsyentery are sent in to school. From Persia, a tissue specimen believed positive for leishmaniasis is sent to the Institute. A surgical biopsy specimen comes from California. From Italy, cultures of virulent diptheria. From Panama, studies on salmonella. Immediate action is required on these specimens and reports. Diagnosis, information on methods of control, and other requested data are radioed to these ZI and overseas installations without delay. To the Army Institute of Pathology was given the job of establishing an Army-wide plan of diagnostic service in anatomic pathology. The Institute consists of four main subdivisions: the department of pathology, the American Registry of Pathology, the Army Medical Illustration Service, and the Army Medical Museum. Initial review of pathological specimens is conducted by the department of pathology. When cases are received they are sent to the preparation room. Each is assigned to a staff member who assumes responsibility for the case. If necessary, specimens are referred to the histology laboratory, where microscopic slides are made. Next, they are examined by a staff of Army pathologists and consultants. Since Army regulations direct that all autopsy cases be forwarded to the institute, as well as all suspected tumors and material on diseases of current interest, the volume of work during most of the war was staggering. Over a thousand autopsy cases and a thousand surgical specimens a month were reviewed by the Institute during the latter war years. Problem cases or those of particular interest are studied under the multi-scope which makes it possible for a group of pathologists to review a specimen at the same time. Various features of the slide are pointed out and discussed by one or more of the doctors. At a typical consultation conference, a group of the Army's expert pathologists confer on a microscopic slide which might have been sent from the European or Pacific theaters of operations 48 hours before. The comments of doctors participating in the discussion are recorded and later transcribed into the case record. [Professional Records Coding Section] The Professional Records Section takes care of the coding and analysis of this tremendous volume of material. After all the material has been coded and filed, selected cases are referred to the American Registry of Pathology, known to every doctor in the United States. [American Registry of Pathology. Loan Study Sets.] Also in this office is a collection of loaned study sets which consist of chemical and pathological data and slides, demonstrating typical examples of various problem diseases. Such sets are on loan to civilian medical schools as well as Army installations everywhere in the world. They represent unusually valuable teaching material selected from one of the largest collections of pathological specimens ever assembled. [Army Medical Illustration Service, Motion Picture Dept.] To the Army Medical Illustration Service, the third big subdivision of the institute, falls the job of covering medical and laboratory activities pictorially. Not only does the illustration service mount, index, and file the thousands of medical photographs that pour in every month, but it acts as a central agency for the collection, preparation, duplication, cataloging, publication, and exhibition of all illustrative material pertaining to wounds, injuries, and diseases of medical military importance. It also trains the medical and museum arts detachment you saw earlier, doing this same type of work in the overseas installations. Illustration teams are constantly at work making clinical pictures and drawings, recording the progress of new diseases, and documenting new or unusual techniques in surgical operations. These units are skilled in both still and motion picture photography, using black and white, color, and infrared film. They are fully equipped to handle photomicrography and cineradiography assignments as well as intra-oral,opthamalogical, and endoscopic work. In addition, the illustration service is responsible for research and experimentation in photography and the development of new clinical photographic techniques. These specimens and graphic materials have been collected during the past 75 years and assembled here for teaching and study. The museum is constantly expanding, with more exhibits being added as newer clinical and laboratory data are compiled. A collection of pathological specimens unique in the history of medicine is stored for study purposes. Many specimens date back to the Civil War and much of the material was collected during the Spanish-American War and World War One. Many valuable studies have already been made on the material collected during World War Two. But years will be required to complete these investigations. To study the effects of the atomic bomb, Army pathologists were assigned to teams that surveyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [Atomic Bomb Research Section] Specimens were collected and detailed studies made in a section of the institute devoted only to this work. Also backing up the Army laboratories in their bacterialogical, serological, chemical, and other work was the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School. The thousands of medical department officers who had the opportunity to attend its tropical disease course know the value of this training. In addition, a continuous program of on-the-job training was in progress. For the students and staff, a well-stocked library was provided. The various divisions of the school all contributed to the training, research, diagnostic laboratory work, and production of biologicals which constituted the wartime mission of the Army Medical School. In the Division of Biologic Products, typhoid vaccine is being produced. First, the large flasks of media are seeded with the typhoid culture. After an incubation period, when the desired amount of growth has been obtained, it is harvested. The liquid which contains typhoid bacilli is processed to kill the organisms. Then the vaccine is bottled, labeled, and inspected. Important advances in the study of the virus and Rickettsial diseases were made at the school during the war. In this dry-ice box were stored specimens shipped for study from every part of the world. From Italy for the study of Q fever, from Burma for the study of scrub typhus. From the Philippines for polio virus and rabies. [Danger. Infectious Material. Keep Out.] To cultivate these agents, eggs have become a very useful laboratory medium. They are used to isolate viruses and Rickettsia to maintain strains over long periods and to produce vaccines. Special precautions are taken in the laboratory's handling of viruses and Rickettsia. In order to avoid laboratory infection of the technician, the work is conducted in cubicles. Many of the virus and Rickettsial diseases can be diagnosed by test-tube procedures. In this portion of the laboratory, Weil-Felix tests for typhus are being made. Complement-fixation tests are used to differentiate the various types of Rickettsial infection. During the war, many new vaccines were developed. The Virus and Rickettsial Diseases laboratory had the job of assaying these vaccines for potency. Here, mice are being inoculated for an assay of Japanese B encephalitis vaccine. The Army Veterinary Division is a part of the Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School. It functions as the Army's center for veterinary training, research, and laboratory diagnosis. Here, chemical procedures to determine the quality of meat products are in progress. Students are being instructed in the inspection of food and the laboratory tests associated with this examination. The invasion of Okinawa and the subsequent occupation of Japan gave the Medical Department the problem of combating Japanese B encephalitis. The Veterinary Division and the Virus and Rickettsial Diseases section of the school were given the job of producing a chick embryo vaccine against Japanese B encephalitis. In producing the vaccine, first, fertile eggs are selected. Then they're punctured to permit inoculation. Rubber gloves, face shields, and gowns protect the technician from contact with the virus. The eggs are inoculated and the two openings are sealed. Next, the eggs are placed in an incubator to permit propagation of the virus. Following incubation, the chick embryos are harvested. Then the embryos are ground in a mill and formalin and saline solution is added. From this preparation the vaccine is made. In this brief tour, the chemistry, pathology, entomology, and serology divisions, all intimately concerned with the activities of Army labs in the zone of interior and overseas, have not been shown. But their cooperation and assistance have been invaluable. The laboratory division in the Surgeon General's office was in the preventive medicine service. This emphasizes the public health responsibilities of the division and its relationship to the other divisons in the preventive medicine service. At the height of the war, this service was composed of ten divisions and was charged with the prevention, control, and laboratory diagnosis of disease. All the material accumulating from these clinical, public health, and research laboratory investigations was reviewed by Washington and after study appeared in the form of scientific papers in military and civilian medical publications. This material formed the basis for directives on the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and control of the Army's problem diseases. The work of the Army laboratories continues. As in wartime, the diagnostic facilities of the laboratory are provided with clinical servcies. The Army surgeon, now under peacetime conditions, looks to the laboratory for assistance on problems relating to the blood bank, transfusions, Rh antibodies, and wound infections. The epidemiologist awaits laboratory reports to complete his data on disease occurrence. From the vital statistics analyses, observations are made on the status of the Army's health. In wartime, the laboratories assisted in the attainment of the remarkably low morbidity and mortality rates. Their research helped in the development of new procedures for disease prevention. Our wartime knowledge has been put to practical peacetime use. The American soldiers look up to these men behind their microscopes. These quiet men behind the scenes. These men who work in Army laboratories, whose never-ending battle with disease goes on alike in wartime and in peace. [War Department. Film Bulletin. F.B. NO. 217. MCMXLVII]