Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-22
Library Here
Holds 100 Years
0fMedicaI Data
Material From All
Over World Is Boon
To U. S. Doctors
Rv lnhm IA MrKnlNvnv


to the annual deluge of Fal
leaves-except that 1t lasts al
year long.
Doctors find it impossible tt
read it all. even the information
concerning their own specific
field of medicine. But If the.
feel they missed something,
they have satisfaction In know
ing somebody is saving thu
material
Luckily, unlike the fate Of Fal
leaves, medical literature has 1
permanent resting place. Ant
its always available.
The Armed Forces Medica
Library, Seventh street ant
independence avenue S.W.. hai
been collecting medical literatur,
in various forms for over 10l
years. The collection was startet
when Joseph Lowell. surgeon
general of the Army. placed {
few medical books on the shelves
of his office in 1886. It has grown
into the largest collection o
medical information in thu
world.
1t is the only place that cata'
logues and files away everything
from the glossy medical journal.
of today to q mouldy manuscript
dated 1904.
Reports From Over World.
Operating out of it's worn
brick 1887 building, the library
reaches all over the world fol
information. From Casablanca
it will obtain a doctors deScrip-
ton of cancer in the upper
eSophagus; from Moscow - 8
paper on fungus diseases of the
scalp: from Sarajevo-words or
the use of antibioticS in surgery;
from Santiago description Of
cancer of the pancreaS; from
Berlin-a paper on the role Of
Vitamin D in liver function
from Switzerland-Studies on the
handwriting of SchizophrenicS.
Doctors, scientists, other Ii
braries and medical school!
grab for the information. Las
year, 10000 books were loaned
out by the library. The library
photographers filmed from ont
to five pages out of PERIODICAL
and books to I'LL 105.709 indi.
vidual requests from all over thu
world.
To the casual observer much
of the library's material might
be called Junk" What uss
could the material. like thu
manuscript dated 1904. be Il
fast-moving, modern medicine
But, as the librarians poin
out. who can be the judge o
what is junk and what isn't.
May Be Just the Thing.
They have found that a re-
quest might come In at any tim
"for that moth-eaten, 1900 vol
ume on blood vessels by a little
known, dead Danish doctor.
It's quite possible the old bool
might contain just the lead" ,
1954-scientiSt has overlooked IL
his experiments on heart disease
Army doctors turned up sucl
q lead" when they wer
stumped by a disease filterini
through American troops in Ko
rea. They had never seen tn
often-fatal sickness before. ]
was unknown to Western medi
cine. Yet q search of RUSSIAN
and Japanese medical literatur
at the library found the diseas
had been accurately describe
decades ago. Army doctors. Their
had something to go on. The
were able to control the diseas
In time.
Just recently. a research prof
ect had been launched to prob
into the mass Of ancient litera
ture the library stores in Cleve
land (because Of lack of spac
here). There, a scientist
Tipping the time-worn jotting
with an eye-out for any men
ton Of herbs. For it was foun
by scientists at the Nations
Cancer Institute, that certain
herbs had a remarkable inhibit
ing quality when applied to ex
'perimental cancer tumors. An
back in 1900, doctors" wer
writing down their claims tina
herbs were cures for certain dis
eases. Scientists want to I'm
out IL they had something.
A Collective Memory.
1t. Col. Frank B. Rogers, chic
librarian, explains the library
purpose Of saving what may ap
pear to be insignificant:
"a medical library serves as
collective memory for all the re
corded work done In the needles
sciences. The science Of medi
cine is a collective endeavor. Pre-
crossing as q result Of the idea
and observations of many mel
On occasion, significant ides
and observations arise from oh
scure quarters.
This collective endeavor" hs
reached such q pace the librar
must find. every year. a mile {
shelf space to carry the LOAF
Somehow the space is found
Railways, in Easements, in BAG
rooms, across Independence ave
nue. in another building, and .
far away as Cleveland.
The library also publishes
fat listing each month Of ever
item collected. Using the "CW
rent List Of Medical Literature
. doctor In Milwaukee, lookin
into cerebral palsy, can orda
from the library what q doctt
In Finland has just found on tt
same subject.
The hbrary's biggest problel
right now is space. A new, 81
million building IL r1lanued uyif