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

Page 24 text:

(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

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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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F OR Dr. Stuart and the Maternal and Child Health team, time, space and people are a continuity. Relativity is a reality. The longi¬ tudinal studies of child growth and develop¬ ment, nearing completion after twenty years, illustrate the importance of research composed in the key of C: consecutiveness, consistency and comprehensiveness. The problems of care for mothers and children (fathers, too) were presented to the students by Drs. Stuart, Kirk¬ wood, Stitt and Miss Rice through the medium of growth studies, the Family Health Clinic at the Lying-in Hospital and the Whittier Street Clinics. Mrs. Burke presented new information concerning the influence of nutrition on preg¬ nant mothers. Translation of this knowledge on maternal and child health to successive classes is encouraging students to play their part in attaining a well born” world. DR. STUART MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he tvill not depart from it. Proverbs Seated (left to right) RICE, STUART, BURKE. STITT. Standing (left to right) KIRKWOOD, WATTENBERG, CYR. BUTLER, SORENSEN, VALADIAN. 2 L