Post-Mortem Pulmonary Edema *

It is especially appropriate that a paper originating from the Medical Division of the Army Chemical Center be included in this anniversary volume of the Yalc Journal of Biology and Medicine. Dr. Winternitz has been actively connected with chemical warfare medical research from the beginning and particularly during the two wartime periods of greatest activity. During the war against the Central Powers he was concerned with determination of the anatomical changes produced by the various chemical warfare agents. The summary of that work, published in 1920,' still serves as a standard description of the lesions. During the recent war, as Chairman of the Committee on Treatment of Gas Casualties of the National Research Council, he supervised the activities of many teams of investigators. It was in great part through his efforts in this capacity that the plans for the Medical Division, Army Chemical Center, were initiated and carried through. The problem of the mechanism of formation of pulmonary edema was acutely brought to the fore by the early studies of chemical warfare agents, particularly chlorine and phosgene. After the first world war Dr. Winternitz made important contributions to the field,""' . and his interest in this ever-present enigmatic subject persists. It is doubly fitting that a paper on the mechanism of formation of pulmonary edema be included in this volume.