Page 46

Biomedical Research

The discovery of the microbes causing infections diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, and typhoid fever during the 1880s and 1890s created a revolution in medical thought and practice. The Hygienic Laboratory was established at the Marine Hospital on Staten Island, New York in 1887 to apply the methods of this new science of bacteriology to the diagnosis and study of epidemic diseases. The establishment of this single room bacteriological laboratory by the U.S. Marine Hospital Service marked the beginning of the National Institutes of Health and laid the groundwork for government-supported scientific research in the United States.

The Marine Hospital Service was responsible for diagnosing infectious diseases among passengers on incoming ships to prevent the entry of disease into the United States. Under the leadership of its first Director, Joseph J. Kinyoun, an early American proponent of the germ theory of disease, and equipped with the best German instruments, the Laboratory began doing some very fine work in the diagnosis, study, and treatment of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, and bubonic plague. Of special concern were cholera and yellow fever, the two great scourges of 19th century America.

Many studies and experiments were made on different kinds of disinfectants. Special fumigation apparatus was designed. Water was tested for the presence of disease-causing microbes.

In 1891 the Hygienic Laboratory moved from Staten Island to larger quarters in Washington. D.C., where its sections were expanded to include pathology, chemistry, pharmacology, and zoology. The workload and the responsibilities increased even more significantly after the passage of the Biologics Control Act in 1902. The task of testing as well as regulating the production of all vaccines and other biologic products was delegated to the Laboratory.

The Ransdell Act in 1930 officially changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute of Health, and the move to its present site in Bethesda, Maryland began in 1938. Thus from the single room bacteriological laboratory in Staten Island's hospital for sick and disabled sailors grew one of the largest biomedical research organizations in the world.

Page: 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170