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December 10, 1953
General George Armstrong
The Surgeon General
Department of the Army
Washington 25, D. C.
My dear General Armstrong:
I believe you are aware of the interest I have had in the work of the
Army's Yellow Fever Commission and the steps that were taken to
memorialize Walter Reed's Camp Lazear in Havana. It was too bad you
couldn't attend the dedication ceremonies last year and we missed your
deputy, General Streit, whose flight was cancelled by bad weather.
My book on the whole subject is held up only by two things: (1) My
continued search for the missing and all-important Lazear notebook
(but I have a hot lead on this now) and (2) my need to know more about
Finlay. You know my opinion that, as the Cubans have been very un-
fair and don't know much about Reed and his colleagues, so we
Americans don't know nearly enough about Finlay. Two years ago, through the help of that energetic young Cuban, Dr.
Pedro Nogueira, I ran across a gold mine, several volumes of Finlay's
own day-book or diary. Years ago they were given to the Library of
the Academy of Sciences and were promptly forgotten. Doctor Nogueira
and the librarian told me that only two or three men had ever looked
at the books over a period of many years. Doctor Finlay's own (non-
medical) son told me that he did not even know they existed. Doctor
Nogueira, living in Havana, has the opportunity of studying them at
whatever leisure he may have for the purposes of his own book, but as
there are about eight volumes, I think, and as the handwriting is
mostly in Spanish, with some in German and a very little in English,
it has been impossible for me to scratch the surface in the few hours
I have been able to give to them in Havana. Two years ago it was my earnest hope that I would be allowed to pay
the cost of microfilming these eight or nine volumes. At the usual
cost of about one cent or so a page, I figured that it would not cost
more than perhaps $75 to microfilm everything. I made a proposition
to Dr. Jose Presno, the distinguished old Cuban physician who is the
president of everything down there and has been President of the
Academy of Sciences. The proposition was that if the Library would
lend me the books, I would bring them here to the Mayo Clinic Library
or to the Surgeon General's Library and have three microfilms made,
one for myself, one for the Surgeon General's Library and one for their
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General George Armstrong
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December 10, 1953
own library in Havana, which they should have in case anything happens
to the books. I told Doctor Presno that I would pay for these three
films. To my delight, he momentarily agreed. I was to leave Havana
by plane the next day and, knowing how precious these volumes were, I
bought a special container. Doctor Nogueira and I were to meet Doctor
Presno at 10 a.m. for the delivery of the books and my plane was to
leave at noon, but alas, no Doctor Presno. After a frantic hour of
telephoning, we found that he had casually mentioned his intentions
the night before to one of the councillors of the Academy. The latter,
knowing nothing about my intentions or integrity, alarmed Doctor Presno
by telling him that he should by no means permit anyone to take the
volumes away from the Library. So I left Havana sad and disappointed,
particularly because there was no way to have them microfilmed in
Havana and it would have cost several hundred dollars to have them
photostated at 75 cents a page. Last year, the Cuban Government chose to honor me and give me a Cuban
decoration. During the ceremonies at the Academy of Science, I reminded
Doctor Presno of this matter and he said that he was quite willing for
me and the Surgeon General's Library to have a microfilm but that it
could now be done in Havana. He suggested that if he received an of-
ficial request from you he thought he would be able to grant the re-
quest and suggested that I be the intermediary. General Armstrong, I am sure that the historians of the Surgeon General's
Library are almost as anxious as I am to have available this invaluable
source of material about the man whose preliminary work was absolutely
vital to the success of the Army's Yellow Fever Commission. I am still
quite willing, if the Library's budget does not include such an ex-
penditure, or if, by so doing, I can hasten the procedure, to pay not
only for a microfilm copy for the Surgeon General's Library but also
for one for myself. I would hope, of course, that the Library of the
Surgeon General would see fit to "reserve" this data until I have had
time to utilize it for my book, upon which I have spent almost ten
years of effort. But if the librarian thinks otherwise, that won't
worry me. I hate to bother you in this matter, but as I am going to Cuba late
in January for another medical meeting and can see Doctor Presno then,
it would be most helpful to me were you able to write him directly be-
fore then at your early convenience and perhaps authorize me to be
your unofficial emissary in case any conversations are necessary to
conclude matters. Perhaps you might choose to have someone else write
the letter but I am sure you know the Cuban mind well enough to know
that they would feel very flattered and very inclined to honor a re-
quest from the Chief, whereas a request from a lesser individual might
well be ignored. Your help in this matter will be greatly appreciated
by me. Sincerely yours,
P. S. Hench, M.D.
PSH:alc
P.S.: I was happy to accept Colonel Hayes invitation to give a
Surgeon General's Lecture at Walter Reed Hospital in February.
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