Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/194

176 lice, ticks and bedbugs" were asked for in one instance, but somehow only cockroaches and flies were received, while from some posts nothing at all came in, but enough specimens were received to keep the entomology staff of the Museum busy in identifying them and making recommendations for their eradication or control. 32

Among the films prepared by the Museum's force were several made with what was described as "stop-motion pictures," producing the effect of animated drawings in which every step in an operation was reproduced by sketches. "The knife appears, without any hands, goes to the proper position and makes the proper incision; the retractors appear, holding the wound apart. The needle appears, armed with the thread, goes to the right place, puts the suture in the right position; the suture rises up and ties itself and sloughs off its own ends. Purely impersonal surgery, the patient being impersonal likewise * * * as the schematized operation proceeds, legends are thrown upon the screen explaining the steps and pointing out the names of the essential structures as they are successively exposed to view during the operation" — this being just before the day of the motion picture with sound. 33

One of the skilled artists who worked on the production of animated pictures was Sgt. (afterward Lt.) Paul H. Terry who, upon his discharge after the armistice, opened an office in New York for the production of cartoon comedies and, in time, originated the famous "Terrytoons," to the delight of millions. 34

A third branch of the Instruction Laboratory, the Anatomical Art Department, grew out of this work of making sketches in series for use in animated cartoon moving pictures, in which the artists were at first largely engaged. In the spring of 1918, however, the brush and pencil came to be independent of the camera, with the issuance of an attractive announcement, designed by Sgt. V. B. Sisson, of "the establishment of an official department [in the Army Medical Museum] for the handling of such surgical and anatomical illustration as is required in the activities of the United States Army Medical Corps" (fig. 58). 35