Armstrong – Table of Contents

The author, arriving in 1948, was largely unaffected by these changes, observing that
apparent progress was indicated by the frequent changes in the headings of the official
stationery of all the new laboratories and institutes. In addition to the activities noted
previously, Armstrong still oversaw the laboratory studies of the investigators studying
encephalitis, influenza, bacterial pneumonia, chemotherapy, brucellosis, rheumatic fever,
tuberculosis, acute diarrheal diseases, the new epidemiology unit headed by Dr. Joseph
A. Bell, and the extensive programs at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory. In addition, the
Tropical Medicine Laboratory, Biologics, and the residual Dental Unit studies were still
constituent components of the Division of Infectious Diseases (39). The Rocky Mountain
Laboratory had a major program of vaccine manufacture and distribution, ongoing
projects in the rickettsial diseases, encephalomyelitis, relapsing fever, other diseases
transmitted from animal hosts to man and continuing studies of medical entomology and
parasitology. In 1948, in anticipation of the expansion to the National Institutes of Health,
the reorganization removed heart and dental disease from the Division of Infectious
Diseases into their own institutes, i.e. National Heart Institute and the National Institute
of Dental Research. The Division of Tropical Diseases and the Biologics Control
Laboratory were separated from the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Rocky
Mountain Laboratory was no longer controlled administratively as part of the Division of
Infectious Diseases. On November 1, 1948 the Division became the Laboratory of
Infectious Diseases, and together with the Divisions of Tropical Medicine, Biologics
Control, and the Rocky Mountain Laboratory combined to form the new National
Microbiological Institute (NMI) (40). The NMI later morphed into NIAID (National
Institute for Allergic and Infectious Diseases) with the advent of the Clinical Center in