News coverage of Ishi in 1911 UC surgeon Saxton Pope was one of Ishi's closest companions. The two practiced archery together. Unfortunately, by 1915 Ishi had contracted tuberculosis and lack of natural immunity allowed the disease to advance rapidly. Throughout 1915, as Ishi worked with linguists to record his tribal stories and songs, San Francisco citizens enthusiastically celebrated progress and civilization at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. The confident civic optimism of the Progressive Era was soon squelched, however, as the nation was drawn into the Great War.
American medicine organizes for war.
The School of Medicine was quick to respond, and within days of the declaration the faculty submitted a proposal for the school to participate in the national defense. They envisioned the organization of a Red Cross unit as a mobile base hospital with fourth-year medical students assigned to it for instruction. Recent graduates in the classes of 1915 and 1916 were urged to join the Army, Navy, or Reserves. Faculty on the UC Medical School campus formed Base Hospital Thirty and were eventually sent to south-central France to care for the wounded. William J. Kerr, Herbert C. Moffitt, and Howard C. Naffziger.