Meanwhile, in May 1918, Colonel Owen received a reply from General Birmingham in which he agreed that the moving picture suggested would be of "great value in giving ideal demonstration and the technically correct methods
of foot drill, litter drill, with the loaded and unloaded litter, as well as the use of improvised litters and the handling of the wounded without any apparatus whatsoever, ambulance drill, Field Hospital dress, tent drill, gas defense, first-aid, principally dressings and splints, sanitation in camp and in the field, surgery and
surgical treatment under field conditions, principally operating and preparation of patients and materials for same, the giving of hypodermic injections, and the use of the catheter."
To this thoughtful letter Colonel Owen replied immediately, saying that the pictures covering base, evacuation, and field hospitals, and ambulance companies were being made at Fort Riley, but that the other subjects referred to in the general's letter would be made at Camp Greenleaf whenever the troops which it was intended to photograph would be ready for the shooting of the pictures. 30[1]
Among the most successful and valuable of the films produced by the forces of the Instruction Laboratory at the camps, and with the aid of the Medical Department, was "Training the Medical Officer," directed at the thousands of new medical officers taken from civilian life and passing through the medical officers training courses.
Two films directed at the practical matter of insect control, and reflecting the longtime preoccupation of the Museum with entomology, were "Mosquito Eradication" and "Fighting the Cootie." Each U.S. military post had received directions from The Surgeon General to collect mosquitoes in its vicinity, and to forward the specimens collected to the Medical Museum for identification.31[2]
At the Museum, the mosquitoes— and other insect carriers of disease as well— were examined by the Museum's entomologist, Dr. Clara S. Ludlow, whose distinction in the field is indicated by the fact that two strains of anopheles mosquitoes bear her name as A. ludlowi. Identification of the mosquitoes, together with any information that might be useful in controlling the pests, was reported to the surgeon at the post from which the specimen was received. Compliance with the order was far from universal, and was not always in conformity with the directions for collecting and forwarding the specimens. Fleas,
