Evening star., 1951-05-22
|Ga||inger Opens
We||-Equiipped
New Laboratory
Stoff of n Speeds
Analysis Reports to
Doctors in One Day
By Wallace {. CIoyton

From a secondhand micro
scope and a part-time pathologist
Ito a three-story. elaborately
equipped building with a staff of
I27-that the 30-year history be-
hind the new Gallinger Hospital
Laboratory, now in full operation.
The 46-room building will en-
able physicians to get. in less than
"a hours. analysis reports that
used to take several days, Dr.
Philip A. E. Stebbing, superin-
jtendent of the hospital, said to-
day.
No longer will it be necessary to
send specimens to the Army In
Istitute of Pathology, the National
Institutes of Health or the Dis
trict Health Department. as was
often done before the nav labora-
tory was opened.
DR.. Manning w. Alden, direc-
tor of the laboratory, said results
of all routine tests will be avail
able the afternoon of the day the
specimens are delivered. In emer-
gency cases, results will be avail
able even faster. The laboratory
will be stated "a hours a day.
Not for Research.
The laboratory, ready to handle
the needs of the 1,500-bed hos
pital, will not be used for research
DR.. Alden said.
On the. air-conditioned ground
floor are autopsy rooms, where
four post-mortems can be per-
formed at once, and cages for the
small animals used in making
tests. Here also is shower room,
where medical students can wash
after performing autopsies.
This sanitary facility was lack
ing in the old laboratory building
Three years ago DR.. Charles F.
IGeshickter of Georgetown Uni
.versity charged his students were
"risking their lives" in the lab
Ioratory.
On the second floor are the
directors Office, a visiting doctors
Laboratory and the rooms used by
the laboratory's biochemist and
staff.
Laboratories for making tuber-
culosis tests, haematology room,
Ia bacteriology unit and a serology
unit, as we'll as a large room for
Iuse of residents and medical stu
dents in making up post-mortem
reports, occupy the third floor.
Completion of the new labora-
tory few weeks ago was the cul-
mination of a battle to get funds
for an adequate labtorary at Gal
Ilinger that started during the
World War I era. 1t was then
while DR.. James A. Cannon was
superintendent, that the recondi-
toned microscope and a part-time
Ipathologist paid for by the mail
underpaid staff itself, constituted
the hospitals laboratory.
Center of Controversy.
Although the facilities expanded
slowly, the laboratory always was
a center of controversy. In 1948
the hospitals Board of Visitors
told the District Commissioner!
the laboratory, then housed in {
rickety building atop a hill in from
of the hospital, was in very bae
condition. They reported the roo.
Leaked, plaster was falling dowr
and overworked attendants hae
not time to clean it properly.
i DR.. Alvin r. Sweeney. superin'
ltendent at that time, conceded the
work of the hospital suffered
greatly because of inadequate labo
ratory facilities. The staff ther
consisted of two doctors and i
Itechnicians.
Efforts were redoubled to ge
funds from Congress. and in April
I1949, construction was started. Tht
building, costing $356,000, was de-
signed by Municipal Architec
Merrel A. Coe and was built under
the supervision of Archie G. Hut.
son, District director of construc.
!tion. 1t has more than $100,00(
worth of equipment.