Armstrong – Table of Contents

The first NIH officer at the epidemic locale was Dr. James P. Leake, the
Institute’s principle epidemiologist who later became Chief of the Epidemiology Section
of the Division (later Laboratory) of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Leake, a kindly, gentle
person, was, nevertheless, a stickler for detail and for precise information. He worshiped
at the altar of statistical sanctity and the inviolability of hard earned numbers acquired by
first hand careful observation. Dr. Robert J. Huebner (7), in a conversation with the
author, described Dr. Leake’s statistical approach to automobile driving strategy.
According to the statistical information available to him, most automobile accidents
occurred at traffic intersections; therefore, Dr. Leake went through intersections as fast as
he could in order to avoid an accident. Dr. Leake was also a good friend and fellow
collaborator on previous investigations with Armstrong. He had tremendous respect for
Armstrong’s professional accomplishments and the unique imaginative way with which
Armstrong approached new problems. After his initial assessment of the epidemic
situation in St. Louis, Leake requested that Armstrong join him in order to supervise the
laboratory aspects of the investigation. At the time (a few months after receiving his
honorary D. Sc. from his alma mater, Mt. Union College in June 1933) Armstrong and
family were vacationing and visiting with his in-laws (wife’s parents), the Reverend and
Mrs. John Rich, of Senecaville, Guernsey County, Ohio. The Division contacted him by
telegram instructing him to report for duty with Leake in St. Louis to help with the
investigation. Armstrong interrupted his leave, left family behind and proceeded to St.
Louis to help unravel the cause of the epidemic.
The newly created Metropolitan Health Council of St. Louis appointed Dr. Ralph
S. Muckenfuss, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of