Part One 



Considerations on which the Recommendations of the Committee are Based 



1. The Record of Medicine in 

 World War II 



We believe that at no time has su- 

 perior medical and surgical care been 

 a\'ailable to the public generally than 

 is now recei\ed by our armed forces 

 even in the most remote parts of the 

 world. Public knowledge of the ex- 

 cellence of this care has brought com- 

 fort to thousands of anxious families 

 and has strengthened the morale of 

 our fighting men. 



The magnificent records of the 

 medical departments of the Arm\' and 

 Navy are directly attributable to two 

 factors: (1) The training men re- 

 cei\'ed before the war in American 

 medical schools and teaching hospi- 

 tals was the best in the world, and, 

 when war came, large reserves of 

 superbly trained physicians and sur- 

 geons were available for the armed 

 forces. (2) Medical progress had 

 been rapid before the war and was 

 continued at an accelerated rate dur- 

 ing the war under the stimulus of 

 the Committee on Medical Research 

 and the Army Epidemiologv Board. 



The results are spectacular. Be- 

 tween World War I and World War 

 II, the death rate for all diseases in 

 the Army, including overseas forces, 

 has been reduced from 14.1 to 0.6 

 per 1,000 strength. Dysentery, for- 

 merly the scourge of armies, has be- 

 come a minor problem. Tetanus, 

 typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, and 

 smallpox have been practicallv elimi- 

 nated. As a result of a potent vaccine 



52 



and impro\'ed mosquito control, yel- 

 low fever has not appeared in the 

 Armv or Navy. The prompt arrest 

 of the Naples epidemic of typhus 

 by means of the insecticide DDT is 

 a dramatic example of preventive 

 medicine. 



The use of the sulfa drugs has 

 lowered the death rate from lobar 

 pneumonia in the Armv from 24 per- 

 cent in World War I to less than 1 

 percent at present. The death rate 

 from meningitis has been reduced 

 to one-tenth of that in World War I. 

 Penicillin is one of the great tri- 

 umphs of modern therapeutics. By 

 its use death rates and disability from 

 infections due to the staphylococcus, 

 streptococcus, pneumococcus, and an- 

 thrax bacillus have been greatly re- 

 duced. It has also proved to be a 

 most effective weapon in limiting 

 mfection and in accelerating healing 

 of wounds and burns. As a result 

 of treatment with penicillin the days 

 per man per year lost from active 

 duty in 1944 because of venereal dis- 

 ease were one-third of those for 1940. 

 The temporary disabling complica- 

 tions of gonorrhea have been cut in 

 this period to one twenty-fourth. 



Ad\'ances in surgery have been 

 scarcely less dramatic. Despite dev- 

 astating antipersonnel munitions, the 

 fatality rate among the wounded has 

 been as low as in any war in history. 

 Prolonged and difficult operations are 

 performed successfully in field hos- 

 pitals close to the front. Surgical 

 skill has been aided by the avail- 



