GENETICS CONFERENCE 



195 



decisions of far-reaching social significance. Biologists, for the most 

 part, lead rather sheltered lives. Their discoveries are of interest 

 prificipally to their inmiediate colleagues, although coimnercial as- 

 pects of many biological discoveries have beco7ne increasingly 

 important. This is no longer true of the geneticist. His activities are 

 of public interest; his debates are reported in the world'' s press. His 

 discoveries are widely publicized, and are often misinterpreted and 

 garbled in the transmission. He has moved, ivilly-nilly, into the 

 public eye. The consequences to society of discoveries that are likely 

 to affect the hwnan genetic constitution ?nust be i?ivestigated and 

 determined, and the Jieiv trend for genetic research is clear-cut. 



The first of these two papers illustrates another general biological 

 phenofnenon, that of team research. This is the report of a group 

 of research workers, not of a single man. Research today in any 

 area is likely to demand too much specialized k?iowledge and back- 

 groimd for afiy i?idividual to encompass, a?id as a consequence several 

 specialists cooperate to bring their pooled knowledge to bear on a 

 problejfi. 



This paper introduces the proble?n of the effects of the atomic 

 bomb on the genetics of mankind. It is perhaps one of the most 

 active and most heavily supported areas of research today. 



The Atomic Energy Commission re- 

 cently formally signified its intention of 

 supporting long-range medical studies of 

 the survivors of the atomic bombings 

 in Japan, to be conducted by the Com- 

 mittee on Atomic Casualties of the Na- 

 tional Research Council. One aspect of 

 these studies will concern the much- 

 discussed potential genetic effects of the 

 bombs. The background of this program 

 begins shortly after Japan's surrender, 

 when a Joint Army-Navy Commission 

 made extensive observations in Hiro- 

 shima and Nagasaki on the survivors of 

 the bombings. At the conclusion of the 

 Commission's work its chairman, Col. A. 

 W. Oughterson, M.C., AUS, recom- 

 mended to the Surgeon General of the 

 Army that the Council be requested to 

 undertake a long-range study of the 

 medical and biological effects of the 

 atomic bomb, and this recommendation 

 was transmitted by Surgeon Gen. Nor- 

 man T. Kirk to Lewis H. Weed, chair- 

 man of the Division of Medical Sciences. 

 As a result, in June 1946 a conference 

 group was convened by the Council, and 

 in November, following its recommenda- 



tion, a five-man commission composed of 

 representatives of the Council, the Army, 

 and the Navy left for Japan for the pur- 

 pose of determining the current status of 

 Japanese work on atomic bomb casualties, 

 evaluating the feasibility of American 

 participation in continued research on 

 these casualties, and indicating the lines 

 along which such studies should proceed. 

 This commission, known as the Atomic 

 Bomb Casualty Commission and com- 

 posed of Austin Brues, Paul S. Henshaw, 

 Lt. Melvin Block, M.C., AUS, Lt. James 

 V. Neel, M.C., AUS, and Lt (j.g.) Fred- 

 erick Ullrich, (MC) USNR, submitted a 

 report of its findings to the Council in 

 January 1947. 



The June 1946 conference group had 

 recommended that appropriate action be 

 taken to obtain a Presidential Directive 

 authorizing the National Research Coun- 

 cil to initiate a long range study of the 

 atomic bomb effects. This Directive was 

 issued at the request of the Secretary of 

 the Navy, James T. Forrestal, in Novem- 

 ber 1946, and on its authorit}^ the Coun- 

 cil, in January 1947, established a Com- 

 mittee on Atomic Casualties, composed 



