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While both the American Registry and the Medical Illustration Service are integral parts of the Institute of Pathology, both have responsibilities that extend beyond the primary purposes of their parent organization. Thus, the several registries are so many links between the medical services of the Armed Forces and the civilian medical, dental, and veterinary professions. At the beginning of the last decade of the Institute's occupancy of the old building, there were 12 such links; at the time of the move into the new building, the number had grown to 22, each one with a registrar chosen from the Institute's staff of senior pathologists. The separate registries, each working with its own sponsoring organization in medical, dental, or veterinary specialties, are bound together in the American Registry of Pathology.

An important service of the American Registry to the medical profession, civil as well as military, is the circulation of histopathological study sets (fig. 103). These sets are especially appreciated by those who are preparing for examination by the certifying boards of the various organized medical, dental, and veterinary specialties. Before 1949, distribution of these study sets had been on a rental basis, with the fees paid to the National Research Council. This was changed, effective 1 January 1949, to a loan basis, with no charge other than paying the transportation both ways. When the Army Chief of Finance was approached with an inquiry as to the method of property accountability to be adopted under the new system, its legality was questioned. The Logistical Division of the Army General Staff, to whom the question was referred, ruled that the plan was "both authorized and desirable," and directed that the language of the pertinent Army Regulations No. 40-410 be amended so as to make it clear that "the Army Institute of Pathology may supply teaching material, such as sets of prepared microscopic slides to Army installations and qualified professional persons as approved by the Director." 18

Approximately 50 different study sets, each one containing from 25 to 100 slides, accompanied by a syllabus and other materials, were kept in circulation, with no more than one set at a time loaned to a borrower. More than 10 sets a day were loaned in the last year of occupancy of the old building. 19

The value of the work of the American Registry was further recognized by the action of the American College of Surgeons which, in July 1953, donated