Series 5 -- Military Service

1941-1970 -- 29 Boxes -- 14.5 linear feet

Biographical Note

Albert B. Sabin served as a civilian consultant with the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board from 1941-43 and from 1946-69. From 1943-45, he served on active duty with the Medical Corps. Sabin was first commissioned a Major and was later promoted to Lt. Colonel. He was discharged in 1946 after having investigated such diseases as dengue, sandfly fever, Japanese B and St. Louis encephalitis, and other neurotropic viral infections both at home and overseas. The development of vaccines for both St. Louis and Japanese B encephalitis and dengue is considered his major contribution to military medicine during World War II.

Scope and Content Note

This series is organized alphabetically into seven sub-series, of which six are topical, mainly by disease, and one, Source Materials, * has been arranged both topically and by issuing body. Most sub-series are further organized either topically or by type of material, i.e. correspondence, data, reports, etc. No attempt has been made to adhere strictly to the various name changes of the military boards and commissions. The sub-series Army Epidemiological Board/Neurotropic Virus Commission is so named reflecting usage when Sabin began work as a consultant in 1941 and consists of materials through to the mid-sixties. The sub-series Armed Forces Epidemiological Board documents Sabin's tenure as a consultant and board member, during which his duties were not limited only to the Virus Commission. These two sub-series contain mostly administrative material, although some information on various diseases may be found. Likewise, the topical sub-series also contain some business matters of the board and commission.

Diseases, other than those that are listed above, for which information can be found in this series include hepatitis, poliomyelitis, Western and Eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile Fever, measles, Brill's disease, malaria, yellow fever, and epidemic hemorrhagic fever. Major correspondents include John R. Paul, Thomas Francis, William McD. Hammon, Stanhope Bayne-Jones, Peter K. Olitsky, Jordi Casals, Isabel Morgan, Gustave Dammin, W. Paul Havens, Kenneth Burns, Joseph Smadel, Cornelius B. Philip, Walter Schlesinger, Colin MacLeod, Herald R. Cox as well as other scientists at pharmaceutical companies such as Lederle and Sharp and Dohme, and several Japanese scientists. The locations to which Sabin traveled during this period include Japan, Egypt, Okinawa, Sicily, portions of the Middle East, and Germany.

*Sabin's original order did not include folders clearly marked as source material, however, the creation of this subseries is based on this excerpt from Sabin's letter to John R. Paul dated April 16, 1943, just prior to his first overseas assignment, the expedition to North Africa: "I have had a number of essential papers on sandfly fever and epidemic hepatitis either copied on the typewriter or photostated."