Public Health and USPHS by The National Library of Medicine

This film was created as a professional educational extension of the American Radium Society on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The film stresses the need for multiple disciplines to work together to treat childhood cancer. The three disciplines represented on this panel discussion were: surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Three childhood cancer cases were discussed: a 9-month old with a tumor on the right kidney, a 7-month old with a tumor in the left groin, and a 10-year-old boy with a tumor on the arm.

This film demonstrates techniques of space spraying for insect control over large and small areas, both indoors and out, and shows various types of power-spraying equipment. Shots include: airplane spraying, mosquito larviciding on pond, fogging in neighborhood at night, etc. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800044A.

In this film, a narrator discusses with multiple visual aids the dangers of smoking. He first compares smoking cigarettes to chimneys, explaining the natural processes of the lungs and how cigarettes alter them, using a simplified lung diagram. The film shows several clips of men who have been handicapped as a result of smoking. The narrator then explains a smoking machine, which emulates human smoking and collects cigarette tar in glass bottles. Jars of tar in increasing sizes are shown to represent tar intake over time by smokers.

The work and patient population of the USPHS hospitals is outlined. Dr. John J. Walsh, director of research at the Seamen's Memorial Laboratory in New Orleans gives a report of the research activities carried out at the Laboratory. These include research in parasitic infections, in regional perfusion in the treatment of malignancies, in the dilated heart, in endoplasmic cellular membranes, in drug action at the basic macromolecular level, and in the effect of drugs on the force of the contraction of the heart muscle.

This Public Health Service film introduces a major problem in medicine--a plethora of knowledge and no way to easily record and disseminate it to other doctors. Medical students and physicians discuss the difficulties of staying current given the volume of information at hand, even just within their own fields. They must read and research constantly, a time-consuming practice. Important medical advances are made daily, with no regular and efficient way to learn about them. The film then suggests a solution in the form of audiovisuals.

These television spots were designed to encourage individual and family vaccination against the Asian flu pandemic of 1957, an outbreak of influenza that was first identified in February 1957 in East Asia and subsequently spread worldwide. Produced by the Communicable Disease Center of the United States Public Health Service. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8800001A.

Richard Lamm provides the legal viewpoint of the discussion, starting with the passing of a more liberal abortion law in Colorado in 1967. Dr. Guttmacher, an obstetrician and gynecologist, represents the view that abortion laws should be liberalized, to provide accessibility not now available to the poor, and that the indications should be broadened from mental health or danger of life. Dr.

"Enemy X" is a mysterious killer. People are found slumped over, the mark of the X on their bodies. This production with a dramatic opening turns out to be a film within a film, and evolves into a discussion of cancer, the number of deaths it causes annually, and how it can be identified and treated through regular physical examinations and attention to symptoms and signs. Members of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, including Director Clarence C. Little and Mrs. Marjorie G. Illig, Commander of the Women's Field Army, are featured.

This film shows rats' habitats and their destructive and disease-spreading activities, in addition to rat elimination and control measures to be performed by the community. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/8700204A. Learn more about the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisuals program at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/films

Dr. Benjamin Spock, noted pediatrician, discusses community water fluoridation--its safety, low cost, and effectiveness in reducing dental caries. Advice to parents and facts about community water fluoridation are presented in Dr. Spock's own warm, inimitable manner.