126 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



effective program of research in the fields of prosthetic and sensory devices. 

 Approximately $272,500 was committed to the work on sensory devices 

 under OSRD auspices. 



Insect Control 



The OSRD Insect Control Committee was created on September 20, 1944, 

 pursuant to a recommendation of the CMR to co-ordinate the activities 

 within the OSRD relating to insect and rodent control. These activities 

 were in turn but a part of the total governmental program which involved 

 several departments and included such matters as the mass production of 

 DDT, its chemical characteristics, formulations and methods of dispersal 

 for its efficient use, its potential danger to insects of economic importance 

 and to other desirable forms of life including plants and birds, and its in- 

 fluence upon food and food sources. The Committee's function of co- 

 ordination was described as follows: 



It will be the task of this Committee to review all research projects having to 

 do with insecticides and insect repellents now under way by the OSRD, to recom- 

 mend to the Divisions of the CMR and NDRC and to the OFS, which have the 

 responsibility for their supervision, the appropriate conduct of these projects in 

 order to fit them adequately into the over-all picture; to initiate by recommenda- 

 tions to the appropriate Divisions of the NDRC and CMR, and to the OFS new 

 projects whenever the Committee finds that such are needed to round out the 

 work of the OSRD in the field of insect repellents and insecticides; and to further 

 the knowledge of insect control in the military theaters of operation. 



The members of the Committee were: M. C. Winternitz, Chairman, 

 Chief of Division 5, CMR; A. B. Hastings, member, CMR; J. T. Wearn, 

 Chief of Division 4, CMR; Roger Adams, member, NDRC; W. R. Kirner, 

 Chief of Division 9, NDRC; W. A. Noyes, Jr., Chief of Division 10, NDRC; 

 A. T. Waterman, Deputy Chief, OFS. 



In order to facilitate the work of the Committee, subcommittees were 

 appointed in the fields of biology, chemistry, rodent control, entomology, 

 dispersal, and improvement of repellent preparations for skin application. 



The Committee and its subcommittees had appropriate liaison with the 

 Army (Technical Division of Chemical Warfare Service, Medical Division 

 of Chemical Warfare Service, Army Committee for Insect and Rodent Con- 

 trol, U. S. Typhus Commission, Office of the Quartermaster General, Office 

 of the Surgeon General, Office of the Chief of Engineers); with the Navy 

 (Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, National Medical Research Institute); 

 with the United States Public Health Service (Typhus Control Division, 

 Malaria Control in War Areas Division, National Institute of Health); with 

 the Department of Agriculture (Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quaran- 

 tine); and with the Department of the Interior (Fish and Wildlife Service). 



