528 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
The data procured would be elaborated without cost by the Statistical Staff of 
the Prudential Insurance Company of America. Publication of the results 
would be facilitated as far as possible by the Smithsonian Institution. 
The total period of the investigations could be limited to six months if 
found advisable. The ofi&cers required for conducting the observations 
should be appointed by the medical departments of the army and the navy. 
Their special training at the United States National Museum would require 
one month. 
4. Material for Future Scientific Research. — The organization of the new 
army will afford important opportunities for additional scientific research 
and the collection of data and specimens which should be utilized as far as 
practicable. Efforts in this direction were made in the Northern Army of 
the United States during the Civil War; the results are embodied in three 
volumes of data by Baxter and Gould, and in the collections of the Army 
Medical Museum. According to available information, more or less ex- 
tended scientific researches are being conducted and illustrative collections 
made at the present time in connection with nearly all the armies of Europe. 
The United States Army wiU include not only men of many nationalities, 
but also those of different races, such as Indian, Negro, Fihpino, and possibly 
Japanese and Chinese. Even under the best hygienic conditions and without 
actual participation in war a certain proportion of these must be expected to 
become ill and die in hospitals. The bodies of such dead cannot, as in peace, 
be transported hundreds or thousands of miles, perhaps, to their friends, but 
must be cremated or buried in the vicinity of the hospitals. These bodies 
offer a valuable opportunity for postmortem determinations, such as the cause 
of death as found at autopsy, the weight of the different internal organs, etc., 
and also for assembling specimens which would be of the utmost value to 
future pathological, anatomical and anthropological investigation. The Army 
Medical Museum and the United States National Museum would gladly 
take charge of the preparation and distribution of such material. 
For the above purposes it is requisite that in each of the more important 
hospitals one member of the medical staff, preferably a pathologist or an 
assistant pathologist, be designated to gather needed records and specimens; 
and it is earnestly recommended that such a detail be made immediately on 
the establishment of each large army or navy hospital. 
W. H. Holmes, Chairman, Ales Hrdlicka, 
C. B. Davenport, Madison Grant, 
F. L. Hoffman, E. A. Hooton, 
G. M. KoBER, T. A. Williams. 
