GUATEMALA EXPERIMENTS 1946-1948 
II 
Funding to support the Guatemala research ran through June 1948, but 
the Research Grants Office at NIH, on request from the PASB, authorized 
continued work in Guatemala until the end of December, without additional 
funding. 558 Dr. Cutler urged Dr. Mahoney to seek additional financial support 
for the work, arguing “because of the importance of the study and because 
of our responsibility to the patients, it should be possible to justify a small 
grant for the second year to avoid any possible repercussions in the event of 
the complete expenditure of the present grant.” 559 Dr. Mahoney dismissed that 
suggestion as “a new grant has some drawback in that it will require a progress 
report dealing with the work which has been accomplished. This we might not 
care to do at the present time.” 560 Alternatively, Dr. Mahoney suggested that 
Dr. Cutler re-apportion the funds to carry out the essential follow-up services 
for two years. 561 
Disposition of the Laboratory 
Dr. Cutler was also concerned about the fate of the laboratory facilities. He 
wrote to Dr. Mahoney in June 1948 to argue that they should leave the labo- 
ratory intact so that the Ministry of Public Health could continue to use 
the facility: K [i]n view of the wholehearted cooperation that we have received 
officially and unofficially from the Guatemala Medical profession and govern- 
ment Agencies and in view of the fact that we may later want to return for 
other work and will want to continue to enjoy the same cooperative rela- 
tionship I feel that it would be a mistake not to leave the laboratory fully 
equipped and functioning upon our departure.” 562 Dr. Cutler also requested 
that Dr. Abel Paredes Luna, a Guatemalan Public Health Service physician 
who worked with PASB, receive a fellowship at Staten Island and be given the 
opportunity to study with Dr. Mahoney. 563 
The Ministry of Public Health was also eager to continue the relationship. It 
expressed an interest in taking over the facility in the event that PASB did 
not want to continue to occupy it, and Dr. Luis Galich, who was the head 
of the Ministry of Public Health, discussed the matter with PASB personnel 
on several occasions, including during a trip to Washington in June 1948. 564 
PASB Assistant Director John Murdock, for his part, agreed that long-term 
support for public health activities in Guatemala was always envisioned. “From 
the very beginning of the Project,” Dr. Murdock wrote to Dr. Cutler in June 
1948, “the staff at the [PASB] headquarters has felt that on the completion of 
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