Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/179

THE MUSEUM IN A WORLD AT WAR Upon reporting at the Museum to Col. W. O. Owen the only order I received was, "Go see Capt. Cattell." Henry W. Cattell was then in charge of pathology at the Museum. When Major Herrick reported for duty to Captain Cattell he was naturally disconcerted. The Captain knew that I knew very little about pathology and I knew that he knew very little about neurology. Accordingly I suggested to him that he carry on exactly as before except that he deliver to me all neurological material for processing as it came in. Shortly after my arrival at the Museum, Col. Owen said to me, "Capt. Cattell has been transferred. You will take over his space and all his duties." "Very well, Sir. You understand that I am not a pathologist." "Perhaps you weren't yesterday," Colonel Owen replied. "You are today." 5

The task of collecting suitable material and getting it to Washington in usable form was, in the opinion of Dr. Ewing, "almost insuperable," even though, in 1917, "orders had been given that all pathological materials received at camp hospitals should be sent to Washington. Under the existing conditions it was practically impossible to carry out such orders, and they fell down at nearly every point. At one time permission for the performance of autopsies was suspended, but this situation was shortly relieved by the Surgeon General's Office. Accordingly the only material from 1917 cases was sent by one or two pathologists whose attention to the needs of the museum had been specifically and urgently directed."

Failure of material to arrive from most of the camps prompted Colonel Owen to send Dr. Ewing to visit some of the cantonments in the eastern part of the United States in the early summer of 1918. "On these visits," said Dr. Ewing, "it became apparent that the laboratories had been built, equipped and manned chiefly for clinical microscopy, and not for pathology. There was always an impressive array of test tubes, Wasserman trays, blood counters, urinometers, etc., and a rather superabundant personnel trained in their use, but I found the pathologist at only one of die seven hospitals visited, and he was busily engaged as admitting officer of the hospital.

Autopsies had been performed, however, and at two camps efforts had been made to collect a local camp museum of interesting cases, but frequent transfers and changes of the acting pathologists had worked "against the effective preservation and control of material."

The "most obvious" handicap to the success of Dr. Ewing's missionary efforts was "lack of knowledge of the methods of museum preparation." 6 As