Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/285

THE IMMEDIATE, IMPERATIVE OBJECTIVE tive material in the world. Its place in the professional life of the country is limited only by the personnel and facilities allowed it * * *. We cannot feel, therefore, that we are so near the tail of the dog that we cannot have equal opportunity with the Library to plan for our new building, so long as the two institutions are to be housed together."

Colonel Ash's letter to The Surgeon General closed with the recommendation that "a small committee of medical officers, who have the interests of both institutions at heart, be appointed to assist in the development of final plans and policies * * *." 2

Apparently this letter bore fruit, for on 24 January 1945, The Surgeon General set up a board to review all matters relating to planning and construction of a new Army Medical Library and Museum. Detailed for the board were Maj. Gen. George F. Lull, the Deputy Surgeon General, as chairman, Col. A. G. Love, and ex-officio the Directors of the Library and the Museum, and the Chief of the Hospital Construction Branch of the Surgeon General's Office. 3

"The objectives and responsibilities of the Army Medical Museum have changed radically in recent years," Colonel Ash informed The Surgeon General, "and several new divisions have been added. Hence the space planned for this institution in the projected new building is no longer considered adequate and must be increased from fifty to seventy per cent." In the Division of Pathology, the principal division of the institution, the material examined in the 3 years since Pearl Harbor had already amounted to "three-fourths as much as had been received by the Museum during its entire previous existence, which included three wars." The use of this material — over 50,000 cases a year derived from either important surgical operations or autopsies — in research and educational activities would require increased staff and more space. So it was, also, with the registries, which gave to medical officers of professional promise and qualified civilian physicians and specialists unexcelled opportunity for training and research. More space was required, also, for the Army Illustration Service through which the Museum was receiving "vast quantities of significant illustrative material." The Public Museum, while it was "by far the largest museum of its kind," was described as "antiquated," with its exhibits