Problems of Acute Respiratory Disease †

In the period of John Paul's lifetime in medicine, great changes have occurred in the face and philosophy of infectious disease. His work has contributed greatly to those changes. Being of sound and inquisitive mind, itchy foot, and unlimited resources, he has moved through many intellectual and geographic areas in unending pursuit of pathogenic facts and inferences. When he went to Yale in 1928 he joined the stimulating company of Blake and Trask in an association which I, too, had enjoyed. This team of Paul and Trask produced a remarkable combination of bold and meticulous research, bringing clinical, pathological, and microbiological competence to epidemiological studies of poliomyelitis. As Director of the Commission on Neurotropic Virus Diseases for fifteen years, he brought together a splendid group of investigators whose contributions have been legendary. And, of course, studies of hepatitis grew under his art and persuasion. It has been a rare privilege to have had close and continued association with John Paul over these many years; to watch the determined approach to difficult problems with courageous and imaginative skill. But there have also been many periods to enjoy in a relaxed manner, social, and cultural interests he so expertly developed. It has been a great life whose lively facets will continue to glisten and to gain luster long after the official academic curtain has fallen. Many forget that John Paul was earlier a student of respiratory disease and its familial distribution. When I first knew him he was, like so many of the modern virologists, a pneumococcus expert. It seems quite fitting, then, to present as a token of respect for his versatile achievements and of personal affection, some remarks on the Problems of Acute Respiratory Disease. * * *