title: "In the Course of Routine Analysis": Re-Envisioning Research in State Departments of Health, 1920-1940.
abstract: During the interwar years, 1919-1939, State Department of Health (DOH) laboratories from around the United States provided scientific leadership and dedicated bench work to support the development of standardized laboratory technique. One important focus of the work was syphilis testing. In recent years, historians have explored the heated arguments and international debates surrounding the development of standardized methods. This article adds State Departments of Health to the venues in which scientists performed valuable research aimed at standardizing and improving analytic procedures. I argue that the research conducted in DOH laboratories to provide Progressive Era public health officials with accurate and efficient tools to control syphilis and other infectious diseases required significant innovation, international cooperation, and scientific creativity from scientists deeply engaged in multiple research projects. These endeavors offer an instructive venue for historians to begin to re-envision DOH laboratories as vibrant sites for scientific research, where work on standard methods was an enterprise of discovery and innovation.
authors.affiliation: Department of History, Grand Valley State University, D-1-220 Mackinac Hall, Allendale, MI 49401.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shapiro-Shapin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*; D013587:Syphilis / Q000266:history*; D013588:Syphilis Serodiagnosis / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: American Public Health Association; Kahn test; State Departments of Health; Wassermann test; standard methods; syphilis