A lost chapter in the early history of DDT: The development of anti-typhus technologies by the Rockefeller foundation's louse laboratory, 1942-1944

Technology and Culture

Volumn 46, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 513-540

  Stapleton, Darwin H ^a  

^a Rockefeller Archive Center   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 25444524002     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2005.0148     Document Type: Article

References (203)

1. Stanhope Bayne-Jones memorandum of 6 December 1943, paraphrasing secret radiogram no. 9634 dated 5 December 1943, folder "DDT General," box 41, Records of the U.S.A. Typhus Commission (hereafter USATC) in Records of the Surgeon General (Army), RG 112, National Archives of the United States of America, College Park, Maryland; Stanhope Bayne-Jones memorandum of 13 January 1944, quoting secret radiogram no. W 9560/252555 of 8 January 1944, folder "DDT Supply," box 41, USATC. The War Department's reversal on the first request is noted in a contemporary report: Yale Kneeland, Emory C. Cushing, and Joseph F. Smadel to Chief Surgeon, ETOUSA, 2 March 1944, GC/177/A.1/2, Special Collections, Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine (hereafter Wellcome Library), London.
2. Paul Weindling, "From Moral Exhortation to the New Public Health, 1918-45," in The Politics of the Healthy Life: An International Perspective, ed. Esteban Rodríguez-Ocaña (Sheffield, 2002), 126;
3. William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (New York, 1998), 290.
4. John Farley, To Cast Out Disease: A History of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation (1913-1951) (Oxford, 2004), 107-27;
5. Marcos Cueto, "The Cycles of Eradication: The Rockefeller Foundation and Latin American Public Health, 1918-1940," in International Health Organisations and Movements, 1918-1939, ed. Paul Weindling (Cambridge, 1995), 222-43;
6. Paul de Kruif, Microbe Hunters (New York, 1926).
7. Albert E. Cowdrey, War and Healing: Stanhope Bayne-Jones and the Maturing of American Medicine (Baton Rouge, La., 1992), 156.
8. A recent useful summary of Paul Müller's research is in Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World (New York, 2001), chap. 8.
9. Socrates Litsios, The Tomorrow of Malaria (Wellington, N.Z., 1996).
10. I have yet to locate any reference to the Louse Laboratory in historical literature, although there is occasional recognition of the Rockefeller Foundation's involvement in wartime typhus research. One of the earliest notices is William S. Stone, "Review of United States Studies on Insecticides in the Control of Typhus Fever," Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria (Washington, 1948), 2:1664-68;
11. the most recent is Edmund P. Russell III, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to "Silent Spring" (Cambridge, 2001), 123.
12. John H. Perkins, Insects, Experts and the Insecticide Crisis: The Quest for New Pest Management Strategies (New York, 1982), 3-28.
13. Russell.
14. Ibid., 129.
15. I have simplified the Rockefeller philanthropic genealogy by referring only to the Foundation, when in fact from 1913 to 1928 Rockefeller public health work was carried out by the International Health Board (IHB), which was designated the International Health Commission from its founding until 1916. In 1928 the IHB was merged with the Rockefeller Foundation and continued its program as the International Health Division (IHD) of the Foundation. The Louse Lab, and the Virus Lab of which it was a part, were creatures of the IHD. The first general history of the IHB/IHD is Farley (n. 3 above).
16. The course of science and technology in the Rockefeller Foundation's history is well-documented in several monographs drawn from research in the Rockefeller Foundation Archives (Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York), notably: Howard S. Berliner, A System of Scientific Medicine: Philanthropic Foundations in the Flexner Era (New York, 1985);
17. E. Richard Brown, Rockefeller Medicine Men (Berkeley, 1979);
18. John Ettling, The Germ of Laziness: Rockefeller Philanthropy and Public Health in the New South (Cambridge, Mass., 1981);
19. Raymond B. Fosdick, The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation (New York, 1952);
20. Gerald Jonas, The Circuit Riders: Rockefeller Money and the Rise of Modern Science (New York, 1989);
21. Lily Kay, The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology (New York, 1993);
22. Robert E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900-1945 (Chicago, 1991);
23. and Jean-François Picard, Fondation Rockefeller et la recherche médicale (Paris, 1999).
24. Greer Williams, The Plague Killers (New York, 1969)
25. is a popular and largely accurate account of global campaigns against hookworm, typhus, malaria, and yellow fever by the Rockefeller Foundation and allied institutions. Scholarly works on specific campaigns include Cueto (n. 3 above); Soma Hewa, Colonialism, Tropical Disease and Imperial Medicine: Rockefeller Philanthropy in Sri Lanka (Lanham, Md., 1995);
26. Armando Solorzano Ramos, Fiebre Dorado o Fiebre Amarilla? La Fundacion Rockefeller en México (Guadalajara, 1997);
27. Paul Weindling, "Public Health and Political Stabilization: The Rockefeller Foundation in Central and Eastern Europe between the World Wars," Minerva 31 (1993): 253-67;
28. Ka-che Yip, "Health and Society in China: Public Health Education for the Community, 1912-1937," Social Science and Medicine 16 (1982): 1197-207.
29. Darwin H. Stapleton, "A Success for Science or Technology? The Rockefeller Foundation's Role in Malaria Eradication in Italy, 1924-1935," Medicina Nei Secoli: Arte e Scienza 6 (1994): 213-38;
30. R. M. Packard and Paulo Gadelha, "'A Land Filled with Mosquitoes': Fred L. Soper, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Anopheles Gambiae Invasion of Brazil," Parassitologia 36 (1994): 197-213.
31. Fosdick, 44-92;
32. Mary Brown Bullock, An American Transplant: The Rockefeller Foundation and Peking Union Medical College (Berkeley, Calif., 1980);
33. D. H. Stapleton, "Internationalism and Nationalism: The Rockefeller Foundation, Public Health, and Malaria in Italy, 1923-1951," Parassitologia 42 (2000): 127-34.
34. What will be referred to in this article as the "Virus Laboratory" or the "Virus Lab" was formally designated as the Laboratories of the International Health Division. The separate subunit of those laboratories referred to as the "Louse Lab" in this article had no formal designation. Nonetheless, those terms were utilized by those who worked at or with the laboratories, and they are effective shorthand for the purposes of this article.
35. Warren Weaver diary, 28 August 1936, 22 September 1936, 7 December 1936, 22 December 1936, 14 October 1937, 5 November 1937, RG 12.1, Rockefeller Foundation Archives (hereafter RFA), Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
36. Alfred J. Saah, "Rickettsia Prowazekii (Epidemic or Louse-Borne Typhus)," in Mandell, Douglas and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, ed. Gerald L. Mandell, John E. Bennett, and Raphael Dolin, 4th ed. (New York, 1995), 2:1735-37;
37. McNeill (n. 2 above), 30-31, 217-18, 264, 289.
38. McNeill calls typhus "a disease of crowding and of poverty." See also John C. Snyder, "The Typhus Fevers," in Viral and Rickettsial Fevers of Man, ed. Thomas M. Rivers (Philadelphia, 1948), 462-82.
39. Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice and History: A Study in Biography (Boston, 1934).
40. Wilbur A. Sawyer diary, 11 January 1940, excerpt in folder 259, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA.
41. Rockefeller Foundation Trustee Resolution IH 40001, 18 March 1940, excerpt in folder 260, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; Wilbur Sawyer to Hans Zinsser, 19 March 1940, folder 259, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA.
42. John C. Snyder to A. J. Warren, 6 September 1940, folder 259, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA.
43. Rockefeller Foundation Trustee Resolution IH 40025, 1 November 1940, folder 260, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA. A 1944 list of typhus strains available from the Rockefeller Foundation's laboratory in New York identified four that had come into its possession in 1940: Osler L. Peterson to Stanhope Bayne-Jones, 5 April 1944, folder 20, box 2, RG 5.4, RFA.
44. John C. Snyder to Kenneth C. Smithburn, 7 August 1941, folder 260, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; John C. Snyder to Ruiz Castaneda, 23 March 1942, folder 215, box 19, series 4, RG 5, RFA; J. C. Snyder, "Typhus Fever in the Second World War," California Medicine 66 (1947): 17.
45. See also a report of a high-level conference on typhus vaccine at which "very little was accomplished": Johannes H. Bauer diary, 24 June 1942, RG 12.1, RFA. Arthur Silverstein, in A History of Immunology (San Diego, 1989), 329, describes the period 1910-60 as the "Dark Ages" of immunology, in which little of practical importance was done.
46. John C. Snyder, memorandum, 14 August 1941, folder 260, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
47. Trustees' Confidential Report, "Typhus Research Now Has a Susceptible Animal," December 1941, folder 259, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA.
48. Snyder, "Typhus Fever in the Second World War," 18-19;
49. Farley (n. 3 above), 129-31;
50. Albert E. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life: American Military Medicine in World War II (New York, 1994), 123-25.
51. . Persons receiving the Cox vaccine were still susceptible to typhus infections in less virulent forms, such that symptoms might not be apparent. While this meant that vaccinated individuals could transmit typhus to others, "whether this [lower level of infection for] immunized typhus patients would be sufficient to prevent the development of an epidemic of classical louse-borne typhus" could not be established by research during World War II;
52. John C. Snyder et al., "The Effect of Typhus Vaccine on the Numbers of Rickettsia in Body Lice of Typhus Patients," American Journal of Hygiene 49 (1949): 344.
53. J. H. Janney, memorandum, 19 December 1941, folder 260, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; John K. Barnes Jr., "Typhus Fever, Big Factor in Past Wars, Won't Win This One," Wall Street Journal, 11 March 1942, clipping in folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA (despite the headline, the article notes that "There is little doubt that typhus in epidemic form already is present in eastern Europe and northwest Africa."); copy of cablegram, League of Nations to [U.S.] Secretary of State, 19 March 1942, attached to L. M. Mitchell to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 31 March 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA (this cablegram notes that "incidence now rises [in] Europe and North Africa"); Yves Biraud, League of Nations, to H. Sherburne House, 27 May 1942, attached to Richard F. Allen to George K. Strode, 16 June 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA (this letter states that "in French North Africa, typhus prevalence is still unusually high").
54. Janney. The memorandum begins with the statement, "Dr. Snyder and I recommend the following program."
55. Johannes H. Bauer diary, 22 January 1942, box 5, RG 12.1, RFA.
56. Johannes H. Bauer and Wilbur A. Sawyer, memorandum, 9 February 1942, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
57. Wilbur A. Sawyer, "Plans for Louse Control Studies in New York," 11 February 1942, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
58. F. C. Bishopp to W. A. Sawyer, 20 February 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; George K. Strode to J. L. Randall, 25 May 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; Trustees' Resolution, 11-12 September 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA. Stone (n. 7 above), 1665-66, provides a summary of the several bureaucratic entities involved in authorizing louse research. The Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine's role in typhus work is reviewed at somewhat greater length
59. in Darwin H. Stapleton, "The Short-Lived Miracle of DDT," American Heritage of Invention and Technology 15 (winter 2000): 36-37.
60. Johannes H. Bauer diary, 26 February 1942, RG 12.1, RFA.
61. Ibid., and 1 June 1942; Stone, 1665-68.
62. Leo B. Slater, "Malaria Chemotherapy and the 'Kaleidoscopic' Organisation of Biomedical Research during World War II," Ambix 51 (July 2004): 121-23.
63. Henry E. Meleney, "Statement of Louse-Control Study of Rockefeller Foundation Participated in by New York University Medical Students," circa April 1942, folder 67, box 7, series 4, RG 5, RFA; "Expenditures to May 31, 1942," folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
64. William A. Davis and Charles M. Wheeler, "The Use of Insecticides on Men Artificially Infested with Body Lice? American Journal of Hygiene 39 (March 1944): 163;
65. A. J. Warren to George K. Strode, 1 April 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; William A. Davis to H. Malcolm Gillette, 5 December 1942, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
66. "Experimental Studies in Louse Control," excerpt from IHD Newsletter, October 1942, folder 261, box 32, series 100, RFA.
67. Charles M. Wheeler to C. B. Philip, 18 June 1942, folder 67, box 7, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
68. William A. Davis to George K. Strode, 15 June 1942, and Johannes H. Bauer to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 29 June 1942, both in folder 203, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
69. William A. Davis to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 6 August 1942, folder 262, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
70. William A. Davis to E. F. Knipling, 24 August 1942, folder 210, box 19, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
71. William A. Davis to William S. Stone, 24 August 1942, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
72. William A. Davis to E. F. Knipling, 16 September 1942, folder 262, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
73. William A. Davis to William S. Stone, 16 September 1942, folder 262, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
74. William A. Davis to William S. Stone, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
75. Johannes H. Bauer diary, 19 August 1942, RG 12.1, RFA. World War II conscientious objectors were voluntary subjects for several medical experiments:
76. Richard C. Anderson, Peace Was in Their Hearts: Conscientious Objectors during World War II (Watsonville, Calif., 1994), 57, 62;
77. Albert N. Keim, The CPS Story: An Illustrated History of Civilian Public Service (Intercourse, Pa., 1990), 75-79. The New Hampshire volunteers were among the earliest: personal communication from Alison Shea Bateman, 22 December 2004, to author.
78. Johannes H. Bauer diary, 14 September 1942, RG 12.1, RFA.
79. R. C. Bushland, "Insecticides for the Control of Lice Attacking Man and Animals," Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria (n. 7 above), 2:1671.
80. J. F. Kagy to Louis A. Riehl, 10 July 1942, folder 94, box 10, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
81. William A. Davis to William S. Stone, 24 August 1942, folder 204, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
82. William A. Davis, "Summary of Third Experiment with Louse-Killing Powders at Glencliffe, N.H.," circa November 1942, folder 262, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
83. Louis A. Riehl, "Report of Talk with W. W. Allen of the Technical Service Division of the Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan on February 16, 1943," 25 February 1943, folder 94, box 10, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
84. W. E. Dove to William A. Davis, 30 November 1942, folder 201, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA; Fred L. Soper diary, 21 December 1942, RG 12.1, RFA;
85. Davis and Wheeler, "The Use of Insecticides on Men" (n. 38 above).
86. Anne-Emanuelle Birn, "Wa(i)ves of Influence: Rockefeller Public Health in Mexico, 1920-50," Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Sciences 31 (2000): 381-95;
87. D. H. Stapleton, "The Dawn of DDT and Its Experimental Use by the Rockefeller Foundation in Mexico, 1943-1952," Parassitologia 40 (1998): 149-58.
88. William A. Davis to William S. Stone, 15 December 1942, folder 201, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA;
89. extract, George C. Payne to John A. Ferrell, 13 January 1943, folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
90. W illiam A. Davis to George C. Payne, 20 February 1943, folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
91. George K. Strode diary entry, 19 April 1943. folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
92. P. N. Annand to John A. Ferrell, 5 April 1944. folder 90, box 13, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
93. P. N. Annand to George K. Strode, 24 April 1943, folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
94. George K. Strode, "Mexico-Louse Control Studies," 28 April 1943, folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA;
95. "Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission, July 1, 1942 to June 30, 1943," folder 31, box 5, series 700, RG 1.1, RFA.
96. Carlos Ortiz-Mariotte, Felipe Malo-Juvera, and George C. Payne, "Control of Typhus Fever in Mexican Villages and Rural Populations through the Use of DDT," American Journal of Public Health 35 (November 1945): 1191-95.
97. Extract from Budget Estimates for 1942, 14 November 1942, folder 262, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA. Also see "Program of 25th Street Laboratory, as of Nov. 25, 1942," in the same folder.
98. Press release, "Commission to Study Typhus in War Zones Appointed by War and Navy Departments," 19 November 1942, "General" folder, box 2, USATC.
99. "Conference on Typhus, Cholera, and the Plague," 26 August 1942, "National Research Council Typhus Conference" folder, box 8, USATC.
100. There are two accounts of the conference, one in the USATC files, and one in the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, the latter written by Foundation field officer Fred Soper. His account, quoted here, notes that the conference seemed to dismiss Sawyer's repeated comments that typhus control could be accomplished by antilouse measures, while Sawyer's remarks are absent from the USATC record.
101. "Conference on Typhus Fever, November 27, 1942," "National Research Council Typhus Conference" folder, box 8, USATC;
102. Fred L. Soper, "Meeting of Typhus Committee of the National Research Council, November 27, 1942," in Fred L. Soper diary, RG 12.1, RFA.
103. The early history of DDT and its testing at the Orlando laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture are not well documented in publications. Edmund Russell has provided the best recent history in "The Strange Career of DDT: Experts, Federal Capacity, and Environmentalism in World War II," Technology and Culture 40 (1999): 776-81.
104. Other useful accounts include Victor Froelicher, "The Story of DDT," Soap and Sanitary Chemicals (1944): 114-19, 145;
105. Stanley J. Cristol and H. L. Haller, "The Chemistry of DDT - A Review," Chemical and Engineering News 23 (25 November 1945): 2070-75;
106. O. T. Zimmerman and Irvin Levine, DDT: Killer of Killers (Dover, N.H., 1946);
107. T. F. West and G. A. Campbell, DDT and Newer Persistent Insecticides (New York, 1952);
108. Robert Rice, "DDT," New Yorker, 17 July 1954, 31-51;
109. Kenneth Mellanby, The DDT Story (Farnham, Surrey, 1992), chaps. 3, 4.
110. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, memorandum regarding earliest testing of DDT, 8 January 1944, "DDT General" folder, box 41, USATC;
111. Rice, 44. British research and initiation of production went forward at the same pace as in the United States; Mellanby, 19.
112. George K. Strode diary entries, 24 March 1943 and 12 April 1943, folder 263, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA.
113. George K. Strode, memorandum, 28 April 1943, folder 88, box 12, series 323, RG 1.1, RFA.
114. John H. Perkins, "Reshaping Technology in Wartime: The Effect of Military Goals on Entomological Research and Insect Control Practices," Technology and Culture 19 (1978): 169.
115. James C. Magee to Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, 5 August 1942, "General Simmons file" folder, box 38, USATC;
116. Fred L. Soper diary, 1 November 1942 [organization meeting of USATC], RG 12.1, RFA. In January 1943 an official report recorded that "typhus is a 'terrible scourge' in Libya," and a report in the New York Times stated that "The dreaded spotted [sic] typhus has claimed a noticeably large number of victims . . . in the so-called endemic countries of North Africa and Russia": Thomas G. Ward, Headquarters, United States Army Forces in the Middle East, memorandum on typhus fever, 6 January 1943, "Essays, Researches, Treatises C Typhus Delousing" folder, box 38, USATC; "Spread of Typhus Alarming Europe," clipping from New York Times, circa 25 January 1943, folder 263, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; "Rapport à Monsieur le Gouveneur Général de l'Algérie sur l'evolution de l'épidémie de typhus de 1941-1942 en Algérie . . . ," RAMC 651/1, Wellcome Library; "National Research Council, Division of Medical Sciences acting for the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Conference on Typhus," 22 June 1944, GC 177/A. 1/5, Wellcome Library. Military historians' lack of interest in typhus is demonstrated by a range of works on Allied operations in North Africa that make no mention of typhus or preparations to control it: see
117. Colin E. Baxter, The War in North Africa, 1940-1943: A Select Bibliography (Westport, Conn., 1996);
118. John Strawson, The Battle for North Africa (New York, 1969);
119. Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett, A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War (Cambridge, 2000), chaps. 5, 11;
120. Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (New York, 2002).
121. Histories of American military medicine do identify typhus as a major problem. See, for example, John Lada, ed., Preventive Medicine in World War II, vol. 8, Civil Affairs/Military Government Public Health Activities (Washington, 1976);
122. Cowdrey, Fighting for Life (n. 26 above).
123. "Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission, July 1, 1942 to June 30, 1943" (n. 47 above).
124. Raymond E. Finocchiaro, "French North Africa (1942-1944)," in Lada, 260.
125. "Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission, July 1, 1942 to June 30, 1943";
126. A. J. Warren to R. B. Shipley, 10 May 1943, folder 270, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
127. Henry L. Stimson to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 31 May 1943, folder 270, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
128. George K. Strode to Richard F. Allen, 2 June 1943, folder 270, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA. The official story was that the American Red Cross asked the State Department to allow the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct typhus-control studies in Algeria using the latest insecticides, but it seems clear that Strode was the source of the recommendation.
129. "Laboratories of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, Annual Report for Year 1943," box 2, RG 5.3, RFA.
130. John Duffy, ed., Ventures in World Health: The Memoirs of Fred Soper (Washington, 1977), 258-68.
131. Farley (n. 3 above), 130-31;
132. Cowdrey, War and Healing (n. 4 above), 148, 155-56;
133. H. D. Chalke diary, 17 July 1944, GC 200/B.1, Wellcome Library.
134. H. D. Chalke diary, 10 January 1944, GC 200/B.1, Wellcome Library.
135. Fred L. Soper to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 2 July 1943, folder 270, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; "Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission, July 1, 1942 to June 30, 1943" (n. 47 above).
136. The Pasteur Institutes in Algiers and Tunis had programs of typhus research and vaccine production; see Paul Weindling, "Medicine and the Holocaust: The Case of Typhus," in Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation, ed. Ilana Löwy (Montrouge, France, 1993), 455, 458. More than three decades earlier the Pasteur Institute at Algiers was the site of Charles Nicolle's Nobel Prize-winning studies of typhus fever.
137. [Fred L. Soper], "Report on Work with Louse Powders at the Prison Maison Carree, Algeria," [August 1943], Fred L. Soper Papers (hereafter Soper Papers), National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md., on-line at http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/VV/Views/Exhibit/documents/typhus.html (accessed June 2005).
138. Fred L. Soper to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 28 July 1943, folder 270, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA;
139. Fred L. Soper diary, 3 August 1943, 5 August 1943, 7 August 1943, 13 August 1943, 14 August 1943, 16 August 1943, 20 August 1943, 6 September 1943, 7 September 1943, RG 12.1, RFA;
140. Duffy (n. 63 above), 275-77;
141. F. L. Soper et al., "Louse Powder Studies in North Africa (1943)," Archives de l'Institut Pasteur d'Algérie 23 (1945): 183-223.
142. Fred L. Soper diary, 7 September 1943, RG 12.1, RFA; Elton J. Hansens to A. E. Badertscher, 30 September 1943, folder 202, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA; Elton J. Hansens to W. E. Dove, 30 September 1943, folder 210, box 19, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
143. . Elton J. Hansens to Robert Wallace, 5 October 1943, folder 207, box 19, RG 5.4, RFA.
144. "The failures reported with test of this powder made under the Commission's direction in Egypt earlier this year" is mentioned in Stanhope Bayne-Jones, "MYL Louse Powder," 15 October 1943, "Correspondence and Other Records Pertaining to Supplies" folder, box 61, USATC, and "Laboratories of the International Health Division . . . Report for the Year 1943." On experimentation with diluents and dosages, see ibid.; "Summary Report of Work Done at Louse Laboratory, April through July 1943," folder 267, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; "Monthly Report from the Louse Laboratory for August 1943," folder 267, box 33, series 100, RG 1.1, RFA; "Report of Louse Control Studies up to April 1, 1943," 26 May 1943, folder 89, box 9, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
145. See also Elton J. Hansens, "Humidity in Relation to the Ovicidal Effect of Powders Used against the Body Louse," Journal of Economic Entomology 37 (1945): 750-55.
146. 5OH) is a common mineral, with properties very similar to talc, that is still used as an inactive filler for insecticides:
147. see http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/silicate/pyrophyl/pyrophyl.htm (accessed June 2005).
148. George K. Strode diary, 6 April 1943, RG 12.1, RFA; A. J. Warren diary, 15 April 1943, RG 12.l, RFA.
149. The state of dusting and spraying technology is summarized in A. Freeman Mason, Spraying, Dusting and Fumigating of Plants: A Popular Handbook on Crop Protection (New York, 1937).
150. E. G. Lodeman, The Spraying of Plants: A Succinct Account of the History, Principles and Practice of the Application of Liquids and Powders to Plants for the Purpose of Destroying Insects and Fungi (New York, 1896);
151. O. G. Anderson and F. C. Roth, Insecticides and Fungicides: Spraying and Dusting Equipment (New York, 1923).
152. In regard to the practice of dusting the author also draws on his own experience in the 1950s and 1960s observing and assisting Martin L. Stapleton in the manual dusting of garden vegetables. It appears that hand sprayers were developed from about 1900; see B. T. Galloway, "New Spraying Devices, " 1899, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, circular no. 17. I thank Elizabeth Stapleton for obtaining a copy of this document for me.
153. W. A. Sawyer to Stanhope Bayne-Jones, 18 October 1943, "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; Fred L. Soper to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 15 November 1943, "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; Stone (n. 7 above), 1667; Duffy (n. 63 above), 279-81.
154. "Laboratories of the International Health Division . . . Report for the Year 1943" (n. 62 above)
155. Elton J. Hansens to Root Manufacturing Company, 20 September 1943, folder 202, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA; Elton J. Hansens diary, 8 October 1943, 11 October 1943, 15 October 1943, 16 October 1943, folder 338, box 31, series 4, RG 5, RFA; Elton J. Hansens to Breuer Electric Mfg. Co., Elton J. Hansens to Lowell Mfg. Co., Elton J. Hansens to Electric Sprayit Co., and Elton J. Hansens to Los Angeles Chemical Co., all dated 21 October 1943, and Elton J. Hansens to Dobbins Mfg. Co., 6 December 1943, all in folder 202, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
156. Fred L. Soper to Leon A. Fox, 8 November 1943, "DDT General" folder, box 41, USATC; Fred L. Soper to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 15 November 1943, "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; "Dobbins Superbilt Wheelbarrow Dusters," circa 1940, brochure in author's collection obtained courtesy of Alice M. Stapleton; Dobbins Superbilt, Catalog No. 48 (Elkhart, Ind., [1945]), photocopy in author's collection, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.
157. Duffy, 283.
158. "Conference 10 A.M. in Office of the Quartermaster General, Reference Two Requisitions Received in New York Port for D.D.T. Louse Powder," "DDT Supply" folder, box 41, USATC.
159. "Laboratories of the International Health Division . . . Report for Year 1943"; "Dusting Equipment for Dr. Soper," 26 November 1943, folder 206, box 18, series 4, RG 5, RFA. The H. D. Hudson Manufacturing Company of Chicago "has made sprayers and dusters since 1905" and produced an "enormous quantity of sprayers and dusters for our forces overseas" during World War II;
160. see http://www.hdhudson.com/disease.html (accessed June 2005). A later army trial showed that the Hudson Admiral and the Dobbins Superbilt were the two best available dusters, although a representative of the Typhus Commission stated that field experience had shown the Hudson Admiral "the better of the two guns in actual field work";
161. "Power dusting (DDT louse powder) test project at Camp Lee," 13 May 1944, "DDT Supply" folder, box 41, USATC.
162. Stanhope Bayne-Jones to George K. Strode, 4 January 1944, George K. Strode to Stanhope Bayne-Jones, 7 January 1944, Stanhope Bayne-Jones to George K. Strode, 11 January 1944, and Stanhope Bayne-Jones to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 22 January 1944, all in "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; "Summary Report of Work at the Louse Laboratory, January and February 1944," folder 209, box 19, series 4, RG 5, RFA. In a report on success with dusters, Soper remarked, "Please do not get the idea . . . that the problem of how to best get powder onto the population has been solved nor that we want Hansens to turn his attention to other things": Fred L. Soper to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 26 November 1943, extract in Wilbur A. Sawyer to Stanhope Bayne-Jones, 21 December
163. 1943. "DDT General" folder, box 41, USATC.
164. Stanhope Bayne-Jones to Wilbur A. Sawyer, 22 January 1944, Joseph F. Sandusk Jr., memorandum, 11 February 1944, and Elton J. Hansens to Joseph F. Sandusk Jr., 25 February 1944, all in "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; W. E. Dove to Elton J. Hansens, 29 February 1944, folder 210, box 19, series 4, RG 5, RFA. In May 1944 the Typhus Commission estimated the procurement need for power dusters was fifteen hundred units: Stanhope Bayne-Jones, "Power Dusters for DDT Louse Powder," 19 May
165. 1944. "DDT Supply" folder, box 41, USATC.
166. Wilbur A. Sawyer diary, 9 March 1944, RG 12.1, RFA;
167. Johannes H. Bauer to John C. Snyder, 21 February 1944, folder 290, box 23, series 4, RG 5, RFA (quote). However, certain related studies continued at the IHD laboratory;
168. see Hans Ris and John P. Fox, "The Cytology of Rickettsiae," Journal of Experimental Medicine 89 (1949): 681-86.
169. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, "Typhus Control in Civilians in Italy," 13 December 1943, and "Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission in Naples," 26 December 1943, "Rockefeller Foundation" folder, box 10, USATC; Fred L. Soper to Colonel Bishop, 5 February 1944, in Fred L. Soper to Stanhope Bayne-Jones, 14 March 1944, folder 290, box 25, series 4, RG 5, RFA.
170. "Report on the Control of Typhus in Naples, Italy, December 9, 1943 to January 2, 1944," Soper Papers;
171. Yale Kneeland, Emory C. Cushing, and Joseph F. Smadel, "Report of Mission on Typhus, E[uropean] T[heater of] O[perations]," 2 March 1944, GC 177/A.1/ 2, Wellcome Library.
172. F. L. Soper et al., "Typhus Fever in Italy, 1943-1945, and Its Control with Louse Powder," American Journal of Hygiene 45 (May 1947): 305-34.
173. Thomas B. Turner, "Sicily and Italy," in Lada (n. 58 above), 308 (quote);
174. Stone (n. 7 above), 1676;
175. Zimmerman and Lavine (n. 53 above), 1-2;
176. Rice (n. 53 above), 44-46;
177. Thomas R. Dunlap, DDT: Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy (Princeton, N.J., 1981), 62;
178. Mellanby (n. 53 above), 20;
179. Edmund P. Russell III, '"Speaking of Annihilation': Mobilizing for War against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945," Journal of American History 82 (March 1996): 1523-24;
180. McNeill (n. 2 above), 290;
181. Trevor I. Williams, A Short History of Twentieth-Century Technology, c. 1900-c. 1950 (Oxford, 1982), 328;
182. Aaron J. Ihde, "Pest and Disease Controls," in Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll W. Pursell Jr., eds., Technology in Western Civilization (New York, 1967), 2:376. According to Saah (n. 18 above), DDT dusting remains the standard response to typhus outbreaks.
183. Paul J. Weindling, Epidemics and Genocide in Eastern Europe, 1890-1945 (Oxford, 2000), 373.
184. See also Weindling, "Medicine and the Holocaust" (n. 67 above), 447-64.
185. An article that appeared while this article was in revision explores this phenomenon more fully while considering the Allies' success with antimalarials; Slater (n. 36 above), esp. 111.
186. Although the historiography of industrial research and problem-oriented laboratories is large, see the following recent examples for a sense of its scope: Joanne Abel Goldman, "National Science in the Nation's Heartland: The Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, 1942-1965," Technology and Culture 41 (2000): 435-59;
187. Giovanni Paoloni, "Public Health and Research: The Instituto di Sanità Pubblica Between Support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Italian Authorities," in American Foundations and Large-Scale Research: Construction and Transfer of Knowledge, ed. Giuliana Gemelli (Bologna, 2001), 115-28;
188. John W. Servos, "Engineers, Businessmen, and the Academy: The Beginnings of Sponsored Research at the University of Michigan," Technology and Culture 37 (1996): 721-62.
189. Matt. 6:1-4; Frances Klagsbrun, Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living (Middle Village, N.Y., 1980), 331
190. quoting Maimonides' code; Leona Anderson, "Generosity of Householders, Generosity of Kings: Situating Philanthropy in South Asia," and
191. Leslie S. Kawamura, "The Buddhist Foundation for Philanthropic Practices," in Philanthropy and Cultural Context: Western Philanthropy in South, East, and Southeast Asia in the Twentieth Century, ed. Soma Hewa and Philo Hove (Lanham, Md., 1997), 188-89, 205.
192. McNeill, 286.
193. One of the earliest reflections on the medical achievements of World War II denigrated DDT research during the war as "applied research, pure and simple, and in no sense basic or fundamental": "Statement of A. N. Richards, Chairman of the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, at the Joint Hearings Held by Subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Commerce and the Senate Committee on Military Affairs Concerning a Post-War Program for Scientific Research," circa January 1946, folder 15, box 3, RG 302.2, Herbert Gasser Papers, Rockefeller University Archives, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
194. Kohler (n. 12 above), 358-91, explores the technological bent of Rockefeller Foundation officer Warren Weaver, 358-91. See also Darwin H. Stapleton, "With the Best Intentions: Rockefeller Philanthropy and the Development of Atomic Bomb Technology" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, London, 1-4 August 1996).
195. Warren Weaver, U.S. Philanthropic Foundations: Their History, Structure, Management and Record (New York, 1967), 219
196. citing Treasury Department Report on Private Foundations (Washington, D.C., 1965), 5;
197. Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy, Foundations, Private Giving, and Public Policy (Chicago, 1970), 118-19;
198. Claire Gaudiani, The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism (New York, 2002), 75-133.
199. For a dissenting view, see Helmut K. Anheier and Diana Leat, From Charity to Creativity, Philanthropic Foundations in the Twenty-First Century: Perspectives from Britain and Beyond (Near Stroud, U.K., 2002), 89-90, 129-30.
200. Duffy (n. 63 above), 302-3, 306-7;
201. Fred L. Soper et al., "Reduction of Anopheles Density Effected by the Preseason Spraying of Building Interiors with DDT in Kerosene, at Castel Volturno, Italy, in 1944-1945 and in the Tiber Delta in 1945," American Journal of Tropical Medicine 27 (1947): 177-80.
202. B. L. Turner II et al., eds., The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years (Cambridge, 1990), 63, 449-50, 635;
203. John Luke Gallup and Jeffrey D. Sachs, "The Economic Burden of Malaria," American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 64 (2001): 90-91.