Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/270

256 leishmaniases, the rickettsial diseases, yellow fever, cholera, plague, and yaws. On application to the Curator, arrangements for transportation will be made.

To take full advantage of the concentration of materials for pathological study at the Museum, the Surgeon General's Office issued, on 23 July 1943, temporary duty orders, for 10-day tours of duty at the Museum, on 34 medical officers, distributed over the nine service commands. The purpose was to give officers' in charge of the histopathologic centers and certain other key officers in the various regions an opportunity to observe at firsthand the available facilities and the procedures followed at the Museum and also at the laboratories of the Army Medical School. A large amount of material was being sent in daily, and the majority of the officers sending materials were conscientiously trying to carry out instructions, the letter said, but there were still a "number who through unfamiliarity were failing to comply. Hence, on the one hand, the facilities provided by the Army Medical Museum and the other central laboratories are not fully utilized, and on the other hand, much very valuable material is not submitted and thus is lost to the Army." The hope was expressed that by "thoroughly familiarizing a selected group of officers with the various activities, facilities and problems of the central laboratories in Washington, present misunderstandings may be corrected and future ones avoided." The officers to whom the orders were directed were expected to pass on to other laboratory officers in their respective service commands the information gained in the short tour of duty in Washington. The first group, 10 officers from the Third and Fourth Service Commands, were to report on 16 August 1943. They were to be followed by 15 officers

The first group, 10 officers from the Third and Fourth Service Commands, reporting on 30 August, and they, in turn, by nine from the Ninth Service Command, reporting on 13 September." 21

Officers detailed for these temporary duty assignments had the opportunity of attending and participating in the staff conferences held daily at the Medical Museum, at which diagnostic problems were discussed and illustrative material was screened. Each Saturday afternoon, there was a seminar at which an out-