Harvard School of Public Health - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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MICROBIOLOGY The objective of the Department is to provide students with a background in microbiology which will enable them to participate effectively in public health work, particularly communi¬ cable disease control. The staff is investigating microbiological aspects of various public health problems with emphasis on arthropod-borne epidemic dis eases. Ajrequally important objec¬ tive is the training of qualified students and researchfellows in the tech¬ nics of laboratory research. Except for the general lecture course, teaching is done behind the Iron Curtain (isolation areas). This means that students in laboratory technics, rickettsial diseases, and arthropods must be immunized against typhus and spotted fever, and also relinquish a small amount of blood for Dr. Murray ' s serological studies. PHYSIOLOGY The Physiology Department dates from the origin of the School when Dr. Cecil K. Drinker transfer red the activities of the Division of Applied Physiology from the Medical School. During the early thirties Dr. Drinker pioneered in industrial hygiene and toxicology. He developed what was probably the first course in human ecology given in a public health school. His contributions to knowledge of the lymphatic and respiratory systems are recognized throughout the world. In addition he was Assistant Dean and Dean of the School for many years. Interdepartmental research dur¬ ing World War II led to many of the present activities of the Department. The research program now includes basic and applied aspects of the physiology of respiration, circula¬ tion and neuromuscular perform¬ ance. The teaching program empha¬ sizes the limitations on nor mal func- tion imposed by environmental vari¬ ables such as heat, humidity and at¬ mospheric pressure. GERGLUND, SARNOFF, WHITTENBERGER, MEAD -14-

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PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE COBB, SNEGIREFF, GOLDMANN, FRENCHETTE, FEEMSTER, BREED, CLARKE, MAYES. ROBERTS, PAUL, LOMBARD, RICE, DUNNING, VARLEY, LOMBARD, LEAVELL, ROBERTS, WHITE, ARCHIBALD The community as the laboratory of the Department is made available to students in a number of ways: Staff members have part-time teaching responsibilities serving chiefly in local, state and national agencies. Full-time staff members assume duties in community agencies both to enhance teaching and to fulfill school responsibility to the community. Surveys are made, both with and without student participation. Field observation and training is available in Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge and Nashoba local health departments, the Massachusetts State Department of Health and many other agencies. The Department is currently carrying on research projects in several fields: Studies in Wellesley under Dr. Eric Lindemann with a team of social scientists designed to develop a program for the promotion of community mental health. Causes of delay in seeking treatment for can¬ cer. Administration of home accident prevention programs. Develop¬ ment of improved methods for teaching social sciences to public health students and for applying to public health knowledge gained in the social sciences. -13-

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SANITARY ENGINEERING Instruction and research insanitary Engineering were established at Harvard in 1911 with the appointment of George Chandler Whipple, who with Professor Sedgwick of M. I. T. and Dr. Rosenau of Harvard created the first School of Public Health in America in 1913. Since the founding of our present school in 1922, the Department has provided necessary instruction in environmental sanitation. MOORE, fair, chang The Department has trained many leaders in sanitary engineering through¬ out the world and has produced the majority of teachers of sanitary en¬ gineering in this country. Cur rent researches include the chemistry and biology of disinfection, the effectiveness of filtration, the behavior of radioactive substances in natural bodies of water, the physical chem¬ istry of ion exchange, and the polarographic analysis of waste waters. TROPICAL PUBLIC HEALTH Tropical diseases and their control have been taught for many years at Harvard with such distinguished specialists as Strong, Tyzzer, Shattuck and Sellards on the Faculty. In 1949 the teaching of these subjects was reorganized and a new Department of Tropical Public Health was created in the School of Public Health. The program now includes a considera¬ tion of public health problems in tropical areas related to climatic and social-economic factors, as well as those directly caused by infectious agents. At present seven voluntary courses are offered. Research activities are varied and include work in depart¬ mental laboratories and field stations as well as health surveys in various tropical countries. Subjects under investigation include malaria, yaws, amoebiasis. relapsing fever, polio¬ myelitis, leprosy and helminth in¬ fections . GE1MAN. SOPER. AUGUSTINE. MAY, WELLER -15-