EFFECTS OF HIGH ALTITUDE STUDIED

The study of medical problems involved in high flying under combat conditions was one of many defense tasks undertaken during the past year by the Harvard School of Public Health, Dean Cecil K. Drinker, professor of Physiology, said in his annual report recently.

In its research work on this wartime problem, the Department of Physiology employed extensive equipment belonging to the Public Health School, including a low pressure chamber, to obtain results which have since proved invaluable to the flying force.

The School of Public Health has satisfied many varied requests for defense service in the past twelve months, in his annual report to the Board of Overseers, President Conant declared that "one of the first departments of the University to play a leading role in the present war has been the School of Public Health."

The first achievement of the School was the formation of the Harvard Public Health Unit headed by Dr. John E. Gordon, Charles Wilder Professor of Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology. Later, Faculty members joined the Medical School to send an expedition to Halifax, which investigated an advised on the control of serious epidermis of disease at that important port.

Other members of the staff helped with problems of infections disease control among nearby troops and in naval stations. In particular a special court in Industrial Hygiene has been organized as a result of problems created to the enormous increase in the numbers of civilian labor hired by the armed navy.