Annual Report of the Surgeon General United States Army Fiscal Year 1961
MEDICAL HISTORY PROGRAM
The Surgeon General?s Medical History Program continued to show marked progress during fiscal year 1961. Four volumes of the official history of the U.S. Army Medical Department in World War II were sent to the U.S. Government Printing Office during the past year by The Historical Unit, Army Medical Service, which has the responsibility to prepare all official histories for The Surgeon General. Upon the publication of these volumes, a total of 19 volumes in the overall series will have gone to press. Additionally, 11 volumes were in active stages of editing or were awaiting editorial processing owing to a shortage of publications editing personnel. Of these volumes, it is anticipated that eight will be forwarded to the Public Printer during fiscal year 1962.
Of the remaining volumes in the overall series, 17 are already in preparation, and at least 5 of these will be ready for publications editing during this coming fiscal year.
The four volumes which were sent to the printer during the reporting period are: ?Preventive Medicine, Volume V?; ?Internal Medicine, Volume I?; ?Wound Ballistics?; and ?Veterinary Service.? All these volumes which fall within the clinical or professional category contain contributions by some of the most eminent physicians, veterinarians, and allied scientists within the United States, all of whom served the U.S. Army Medical Department with distinction during World War II.
The eight volumes currently undergoing editorial processing are:
156
?Internal Medicine, Volumes II and III?; ?Preventive Medicine, Volumes VI and VII?; ?Surgical Consultants, Volumes I and II?; ?Neurological Surgery of Trauma?; and ?Thoracic Surgery, Volume I.?
The three volumes awaiting editorial processing are ?Thoracic Surgery, Volume II,? and ?Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters? and ?Personnel.? The last two are volumes within the administrative series of the history of the U.S. Army Medical Department in World War II.
Two proposed volumes, the ?History of Urology During World War II? and the ?Role of the Medical Department in the Development of the Atomic Bomb,? were approved by The Surgeon General as additions to the clinical series of historical volumes. Thus, the total number of volumes approved for publication has risen to 58.
Reader interest in the various published volumes of the history, which were displayed at meetings of leading National and State medical and allied organizations, was apparent during the past year. The Surgeon General received invitations to display volumes at many more medical meetings than time or funds permitted?although it was possible to have volumes exhibited at 29 meetings throughout CONUS during the year?and the number of book reviews and book notices, as well as the volume of correspondence from interested persons, increased over that of previous years. In this regard, it can be said that the published volumes of the history of the Medical Department in World War II contribute materially to American medical literature and thus to the advancement of medical science.
