For many years the USPHS has had the tradition of providing opportunities for
continuing education and maintaining the professional skills of its commissioned officers.
The disruptions caused by World War I, followed by the national upheaval precipitated
by the 1918 influenza pandemic, necessitated the discontinuation of formal teaching
programs for PHS officers. Fortunately, this situation proved to be temporary. In 1922,
the PHS resumed classes for instruction of its officers (16). Simultaneously, the great
research institutions and teaching centers in Western Europe were experiencing a
resurgence of academic activity and scientific discovery. In 1924, Charles Armstrong
(16) was one of two officers stationed at the Hygienic Laboratory who had the
opportunity to spend four months of study in Europe’s centers of learning where he had
the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and observe laboratory techniques.
In these initial studies at the Hygienic Laboratory, Armstrong discharged his
obligations well. He helped stem an epidemic of typhus on the Navajo Indian Reservation
using methods not much different today used in separating the vectors from their human
hosts. He was about 25 years too early in not having effective antibiotics to treat the
patients at risk for severe morbidity or mortality. He authored a comprehensive review of
dengue fever for his professional colleagues without the subsequent refined knowledge of
the biology of the virus. He investigated an outbreak of epidemic pleurodynia, carefully
noting the clinical features of illness and the epidemiological character of the outbreak
which he compared to previously reported outbreaks. Lack of knowledge about the
infecting organism was a handicap. With the satisfactory accomplishments of these