THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 27 



rodents that were preying on the grain supply of the country. 



The chief purpose of the Division of Medicine and Related 

 Sciences was to mobilize the civilian, medical and related work- 

 ers and laboratories in the United States, and thus to create 

 a united medical service to assist in the solution of problems 

 connected with the war. Urgent questions were brought to 

 the attention of the Division by representatives of the War, 

 Navy and Labor Departments, and the best available workers 

 were then called upon to attack them. Scores of committees 

 were formed for cooperative work, and in many instances in-^ 

 dividuals working independently devoted their entire time and 

 laboratory facilities to war service. In this chapter it will 

 suffice to indicate merely the general nature of some of the work 

 undertaken. 



" Shock," so diversified in its manifestation and so injurious 

 in its effects, was the subject of extensive investigation by 

 members of the Division, both at home and at the front. Un- 

 der the auspices of the home committee, twenty-nine studies 

 were carried on at ten stations, and while much remains to be 

 explained, new light has been thrown on certain clinical aspects 

 of the problem. Another important activity of the Division 

 was the work of the Committee on Industrial Poisonings, di- 

 rected during the war period to the study of the toxic effects 

 of substances used in the manufacture of explosives and the 

 detection of early signs of intoxication among munition 

 workers. Fatigue in industrial pursuits, of special significance 

 under the high pressure of military demands, but hardly less 

 important under peace conditions, was also extensively studied, 

 from the standpoint of hygienic conditions in industrial estab- 

 lishments, efficiency at different hours of the working day, 

 and the physiological effects of fatigue. New methods of pro- 

 ducing acetone, a necessary solvent for airplane varnishes, al- 

 most unobtainable during the early period of the war ; the cul- 

 tivation and collection of native medicinal plants, providing 

 for example, all the digitalis needed by the army ; tests of new 

 antiseptics and studies of their application; investigations of 



