Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

History of the Medical Management of Chemical CasualtiesHISTORY SINCE WORLD WAR IChemical Training and ResearchAlthough World War I ended on November 11, 1918,work on chemical agent exposure continued at theEdgewood, Maryland, medical research laboratories.The Army Medical Department spent more money onchemical weapons research than anything else duringthe interwar years. 26,71–73 In 1922 Lieutenant ColonelEdward Vedder, a 1902 graduate of the Universityof Pennsylvania and a Medical Corps officer, wasselected to become the chief of the medical laboratoryat Edgewood (Figure 3-17, Exhibit 3-7). 74 Clinical caseswere studied, animal research was performed withchemical agents, human experiments were conducted,and new treatments were tested in the Edgewoodlaboratories.Chemical training for soldiers gave way to chemicalcasualty management training for military physicians.Vedder was the first to establish a “course for medicalofficers,” the forerunner of today’s courses taught bythe Chemical Casualty Care Division of the US ArmyMedical Research Institute for Chemical Defense. Theearly course was a 5-day event covering critical informationfor managing chemical casualties. Instructorsfor the course were influential CWS members: ColonelHarry Gilchrist (later general and commander of theChemical Corps), Captain Alden Waitt (gas officer ofEXHIBIT 3-7LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDWARDVEDDERFig. 3-17. Edward Bright Vedder (1878–1952) was directorof pathology at the Army Medical School (now Walter ReedArmy Institute of Research) from 1904 to 1913. During thisperiod he wrote his seminal book on beriberi. After servingin the Philippines during World War I, Colonel Vedder returnedto the Army Medical School in 1919, where he wrotea book on chemical casualties that remains relevant. From1925 to 1929, he was chief of medical research for the chemicalwarfare service. He had an illustrious civilian academiccareer following his retirement from the Army.Photograph: Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.Bethesda, Md.Edward Vedder deferred a clinical residency for aresearch fellowship to study bacteriolytic serumcomplement. As a member of the first graduatingclass of the US Army’s Medical School for Officers(an early version of Medical Officer’s Basic Coursestarted by Surgeon General George Sternberg), Vedderwas sent to the Philippines, where he developed hisresearch and laboratory skills in the study of malaria,amoebic dysentery, dengue, and a host of other tropicaldiseases. In 1910, after finishing a clinical utilizationtour, he returned to the Philippines as part of the Armyboard for the study of tropical diseases and focusedon medical research involving beriberi. In 1913 hereturned to the United States, where he worked in thelaboratory at the US Army Medical School and taughtserology and bacteriology. The United States becameinvolved in World War I in 1917 and, along with DrFranklin Martin (one of the founders of the AmericanCollege of Surgeons), Lieutenant Colonel Vedder wasselected to serve as the Army’s representative to acommittee on education, where he was involved inthe design of pocket manuals used to teach militaryphysicians the medical management of war casualties(Medical War Manual No. 1, “Sanitation for MedicalOfficers”). In 1919 Vedder began a 3-year tour as thedirector of the Eighth Corps Area Laboratory housedat Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In October 1922 ArmySurgeon General Merrite W Ireland established a medicalresearch division as part of the Chemical WarfareService at Edgewood Arsenal and selected Vedder tobe its organizer and first medical director.Data source: Vedder E. Fifty years of medicine. In: The Papersof Edward B. Vedder. Edward G Miner Library, Universityof Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York; Box 3,Folders 1–14. Chapter I.103