The U.S. Army Medical Department and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918
THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE U.S. ARMY IN THE WORLD WAR
The Medical Department's official historyproduced in the 1920s under the direction of Major General Merritte W. Ireland,The Surgeon General, contains a number of volumes that deal in some way with theinfluenza-pneumonia pandemic of 1918.
The most important coverage is in Chapter II,"Inflammatory Diseases of the Respiratory Tract (bronchitis; influenza;bronchopneumonia; lobar pneumonia)," Volume IX, Communicable Diseases(pages 61-169) by in Major Milton W. Hall, Medical Corps, which providesdetailed information and analysis on the influenza-pneumonia and its impact ofthe Army.
Volume VI, Sanitation, containssignificant information on influenza-pneumonia. Especially important isChapter XVI, "The Influenza Epidemic of 1918. Administrative Correspondence dealing with the Control of the Epidemic" which covers the Army's efforts to control the spread of influenza and excerpts from War Department message traffic and internal memoranda (pages 349-71).
Colonel D. C.Howard, MC, Colonel W. P. Chamberlain, MC, and Major A.G. Love, MC, Section I:"In the United States," Chapter XVI, "The Influenza Epidemic of1918. AdministrativeCorrespondence dealing with the Control of the Epidemic," in VolumeVI, Sanitation, The Medical Department of theUnited States Army in the World War (pages 349-71).
Also in Volume VI, Sanitation, there is information on the impact of influenza in the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
Colonel Haven Emerson, MC, excerpts from SectionII: "In the American Expeditionary Forces," Chapters I, "SanitaryOrganization," and XV, "An Analysis of the incidence of communicablediseases," Volume VI, Sanitation,The Medical Department of the United States Army in theWorld War.
Volume XV, Statistics,Part 2, Medical and Casualty Statistics, by Major Albert G. Love, MC,contains numerous statistical tables that testify to the magnitude of the impactof influenza and pneumonia on the U.S. Army in 1918. Four of the tables (Tables100-103) have been included here because they provided later and more completedata for absolute numbers of admissions and deaths for white andAfrican-American soldiers by camps that can be compared with the statistics contained in the Annual Report of The Surgeon General, 1919, Tables372 and 374.
Major Albert G. Love,Volume XV, Statistics, Part 2, Medical and Casualty Statistics, The Medical Department of the United States Army in theWorld War.
By far the most exhaustive medical look at thedisease itself is in Volume XII, Pathology of the Acute Respiratory Diseases,and of Gas Gangrene Following War Wounds. Major (later Colonel) GeorgeR. Callender, Medical Corps, already a well-known Army researcher andpathologist, compiled an exhaustive pathological report on influenza andpneumonia throughout the Army that accounts for most of the volume (pages1-405). At this time, Callender's section has not yet been prepared for posting.
