SUMMARY 



Impressed by the contributions medicine has made in the present world 

 struggle, President Roosevelt asked what could be done by the Government 

 in the future to aid "the war of science against disease." 



Recognition of the brilliant record of medicine in World War II has 

 brought comfort to thousands of families with members in the armed forces. 

 Compared to World War I the death rate for all diseases in the Army, includ- 

 ing overseas forces, has fallen from 14.1 to 0.6 per 1,000 strength. Penicillin 

 and the sulfonamides, the insecticide DDT, better vaccines, and improved 

 hygienic measures have all but conquered yellow fever, dysentery, typhus, 

 tetanus, pneumonia, meningitis. Malaria has been controlled. Disability 

 from venereal disease has been radically reduced by new methods of treat- 

 ment. Dramatic progress in surgery has been aided by the increased avail- 

 ability of blood and plasma for transfusions. 



Much of the credit for these advances is properly assignable to the Com- 

 mittee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Devel- 

 opment. In 3 years this organization has developed penicillin and DDT; 

 supported blood fractionation studies resulting in serum albumin as a blood 

 substitute and immune globulin as a new countermeasure against infections; 

 and standardized the effective treatment of malaria with atabrine now used 

 by the armed forces. Up to July 1944, this program had cost $15,000,000, 

 a modest outlay for the saving in suffering and lives. 



These dramatic advances in medicine during the war have been the result 

 of developmental rather than fundamental research, and have come through 

 the application, to problems of wartime importance, of a large backlog of 

 scientific data accumulated through careful research in the years prior to 

 the war. 



In the meantime, sorely needed additions to- basic knowledge have been 

 prevented. The war has forced us to set aside fundamental research to a 

 large extent. Our capacity to carry out research in the future has been 

 impaired bv the curtailment of medical education, the absorption of physi- 

 cians into the armed forces, the prohibition against training draft-eligible 

 men in the basic medical sciences, and the diversion into developmental 

 problems of those scientists who were able to remain in their laboratories. 



The universities are the chief contributors to pure science, for research 

 thrives best in an atmosphere of academic freedom. It is to the universities 



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