Armstrong – Table of Contents

Armstrong’s continuing involvement with investigations in poliomyelitis was
associated with his inclusion in the Committee on Scientific Research (later Virus
Research) of the National Foundation. Following the incorporation of the National
Foundation in January 1938, Basil O’Connor, the President, with suggestions from Paul
DeKruif, directed the establishment of committees to plan and administer the diverse
activities to be undertaken by the Foundation. The Committee on Scientific Research was
organized initially on July 6, 1938. According to Rivers (19), Paul Dekruif (while slightly
intoxicated) told him that he (Rivers) was to be invited to join the Committee (which was
reorganized several times with various name changes). The original members of the
Committee were Paul DeKruif, Dr. Donald Armstrong, Dr. Charles Armstrong, Dr.
George McCoy, Dr. Karl Meyer, and Dr. Thomas Rivers. Several of the above had served
previously on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the President’s Birthday Ball
Commission. The major difference from this Committee was that the new National
Foundation Committee had three working virologists: Dr Karl Meyer of the Hooper
Foundation, University of California, San Francisco; Dr. Charles Armstrong of the
National Institute of Health; and Dr. Thomas Rivers of the Rockefeller Institute. The
Committee at its first meeting discussed the major unresolved research problems that
needed to be addressed in relation to poliomyelitis. After several months of discussion
and collaboration, the Committee agreed on an eleven-point program (20) that, in the
order of priorities, guided the National Foundation in its grants policy until the
appearance of the Salk-Sabin vaccines in the 1950s-1960s.
The program as it appeared in the minutes of the Scientific Research Committee
(21) was as follows: 1) Pathology of poliomyelitis in human beings. 2) Portal of entry and