Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/382

370 The latter half of 1959 was given over to the collection of soft tissue tumors of various types from the Institute files and their classification in accordance with the tentative classification agreed upon at Geneva. Microscope slides, paraffin blocks, tissues, and records were collected, and the first histological reference set of fibrous tissue tumors, with an accompanying syllabus, was prepared. This material was widely circulated for review and comment. The revisions indicated were made and, in the spring of i960, 50 sets of material on tumors of fibrous tissues were made up. Each set consisted of 25 representative sections of tumors of fibrous tissues, with a syllabus which contained a general discussion of the diagnostic difficulties involved, and with a description and discussion of each type of tumor and a clinical history and comment on each case. In addition to the 50 sets sent to the World Health Organization at Geneva, for distribution to the health centers of cooperating nations, 30 sets were turned over to the American Registry of Pathology to be loaned to individual pathologists.

A second international reference set of 25 cases each, dealing with tumors of adipose tissue was prepared early in 1961, in an "edition" of 100 sets, and received a similar distribution. 26

An earlier instance of international cooperation is the Joint Committee on Aviation Pathology — a group which is "joint" in a double sense in that it is jointly representative of the three armed services of the United States, as well as being representative of the medical departments of the armed forces of Canada and the United Kingdom. The Committee dates from 1955, when it was established by a directive of the Department of Defense, amplified by jointly issued regulations of the Armed Forces.

The Committee grew out of discussions, in 1954 and 1955, among pathologists interested in the application of pathology to aviation accidents. The group included Wing Commander (later Air Commodore) Bruce Harvey, Medical Service, RAF; Capt. S. I. Brody, MC, USN; Dr. Howard T. Karsner,' Medical Research Adviser, U.S. Navy, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery ; Col. Frank M. Townsend, then Deputy Director and later Director, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; and Dr. F. K. Mostofi, of the Institute. As a result of several meetings of this group, the Department of Defense issued, on 14 November 1955, a directive setting up the Joint Committee on Aviation Pathology, with headquarters at the Institute, where permanent files of the findings and other records of the Committee are maintained. The Committee is charged with the duty of collecting information on the correlation between pathological evidence and the factors which cause aircraft