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

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PUBLIC HEALTH AND MICROBIOLOGY them. Viruses come in for their share of attention here also, so the roller tubes of the virologist are used, as well as many less re¬ fined techniques. The Department carries on a lively program of research in the bionomics and ecology of the snails which serve as in¬ termediate hosts of schistosomes, in studies of toxoplasma, and in the pathology of tropical ailments. Epidemiology, unlike the controlled experi¬ ments conducted in Tropical Public Health and Microbiology, deals primarily with disease as it occurs in human populations—trying to account for all of the variables which Nature, plus so-called civilization, can provide. The world, the flesh, and the devil—environment, host, agent—are investigated in an attempt to understand the interrelationships which may cause epidemic disease. Its tools are statistics and the knowledge gained by other disciplines. These combined with thought, observance, and action” may provide the answers to the prob¬ lems disease presents when attacking popula¬ tions. A disease in one guinea pig differs from the same sickness in a herd; and disease striking down men is not the same as a herd infection in guinea pigs. But infections and their spread are not the sole focus of the epidemiologists’s efforts. The Department is involved also in long-range research projects related to popula¬ tion dynamics and congenital malformations. These three departments serve as different types of exploratory fingers of one organism. Each can be likened to a tentacle of a hydra which busily whips about probing the murky waters of the unknown—straining out, now and then, tidbits of knowledge which are DR. SNYDER sucked into the body cavity to nourish the entire animal, regardless of the identity of the tentacle which made the capture. Hence, each division brings nourishment to the col¬ lective understanding of disease and of the complex relationships between man and his environment. Seated (left to right) IPSEN, MURRAY, SNYDER. Standing (left to. right) CHANG. BELL, TARIZZO. H ADDON. 19

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EPIDEMIOLOGY, TROPICAL Seated (left to right) AUGUSTINE, WELLER, GEI- MAN. Standing (left to right) PAN, MICHELSON, CHERNIN. T HE Department of Microbiology, Trop¬ ical Public Health, and Epidemiology are the disciplines dealing with the hints ' ' offered by Nature and the guesses” of men who at¬ tempt the scientific solution of the problems of disease. They differ only in their scope and methods of attack; each is so intimately related These are only hints and guesses, Hints followed by guesses; and the rest Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. T. S. Eliot to the other that their boundaries become nebu¬ lous. In Microbiology the emphasis is on the minutest of the agents of disease—rickettsiae and viruses. The roller culture tube and the embryonated egg have supplanted the agar slants and nutrient broths of an earlier era. Despite its doors bearing slogans to the effect that one must stay out unless immunized,” the microbiology laboratory is a friendly place. The staff and students are busily attacking problems such as trachoma, relationships of rickettsiae and lice, infectious hepatitis, and the nutritive requirements of cells in tissue cultures. Tropical Public Health emphasizes the larger agents of disease: parasitic protozoa, worms, and the vectors which serve to transmit (Left to right) Laboratory Assistant, AUGUSTINE, CHERNIN. Seated IPSEN. Standing (left to right) INGALLS, RUBENSTEIN, GORDON. 18

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(Left to right) TRULSON, GEYER, HEGSTED, MAYER, STARE, ANDRUS, VITALE, DAVIS, GERSHOFF. NUTRITION It ' s a very odd thing— As odd as can be — That whatever Miss T eats Turns into Miss T. De La Mare DR. STARE I N the Nutrition Department, considerable emphasis is being given to research on atherosclerosis and its relation to coronary heart disease. Although this is an affliction of well- to-do countries, the staff believe that its pre¬ ventive aspects should be studied in under¬ developed areas. Teams of faculty members and students have been engaged in several research projects related to various aspects of the prob¬ lem. Experimental studies of atherosclerosis in rats and monkeys were directed by Drs. Stare and Hegsted. Dr. Mayer and co-workers have investigated appetite regulation and obesity, while Dr. Geyer and his group have been ex¬ amining the influence of nutrition on tumor growth. In order to assess the relative impact of nationality and environment on fat metabol¬ ism, Dr. Trulson and others are conducting a dietary survey and medical evaluation of second-generation Italian factory workers. 20