Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/7

FOREWORD nence this country has in this field in the present day. World War II saw the Museum as the leader in bringing about the standardization of diagnoses and teaching methods in pathology that has enhanced the science of the study of disease in the past two decades.

The Institute's close relationship with civilian medicine also has origins in the very beginning of the Museum. The first formal arrangement between the Museum and civilian medicine took place in 1895, when the American Dental Association adopted the Museum as a repository for study materials in the field of dentistry. The next great step was the founding of the American Registry of Ophthalmology in 1921. The establishment of the American Registry of Pathology under the auspices of the National Academy of SciencesNational Research Council and the Museum in 1933 gave signal impetus to the registry movement, and by the end of the centennial year in 1962 the number of Registries had grown to 27.

Following World War I, the Museum also became the repository for the material from the Veterans' Administration hospitals. This was discontinued in 1929, but after World War II the Veterans' Administration designated the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology as its "Central Laboratory for Anatomic Pathology and Research." Since that time, the Veterans' Administration has played a key role in the affairs of the Institute. Its employees make up a portion of the professional, technical, and clerical staff. This liaison between the Armed Forces and the Veterans' Administration permits former patients to be followed after they leave the service and greatly enhances the repository of case material available to the Institute. Through the aegis of the American Registry of Pathology, civilian pathologists also contribute cases to the Institute files that are valuable in filling gaps in the overall knowledge of disease; this information cannot be acquired from the military population alone. Beginning with the work of Walter Reed and the Museum staff in the 1890's on yellow fever, the Institute has had a continued interest in tropical diseases and other disease entities that occur throughout the world. This collection of material was invaluable in the beginning of World War II in the preparation of manuals and textbooks used in the training of physicians who were to accompany our troops to the remote corners of the earth during that conflict. The Institute has continued this interest in global medicine, with members of its staff collecting material from all corners of the world. Contributions of cases by pathologists of other countries have added significantly to the collection of disease entities, which now exceeds one million cases. From this vast storehouse of