U.S. Government Films (Rattus norvegicus): John B. Calhoun Film → 7.1 1972 → 𐊏EXT → LSD: Insight oᴿ Insanitƴ? Ɽead Essa𝓎|ƳouTube|ᴿead Transcᴙipt ¶𝓜ᴿ𝚥𝔂𐊏¶
Listen to 1966 Senate hearings on LSD chaired by Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY)
In 1966, several Senate
committees held hearings about LSD, driven by fears of abuse on college
campuses in particular. A subcommittee led by Robert Kennedy compelled
testimony from representatives of the Food and Drug Administration, the
National Institute of Mental Health, and other U.S. government agencies
to explore the role of the government in regulating the drug and
overseeing research. Kennedy was in favor of more research, especially
in the area of mental health.
Excerpts from Hearings of the Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization
of the Senate Committee on Government Operations concerning federal drug
research and regulation of LSD, May 24, 1966 [NLM Historical Audiovisuals accession #2001-02]
ᴙesearch data, audio and video tapes and film, photographs and
negatives, charts and graphs, and reprints document Dr. Calhoun’s
research activity at NIMH’s Section on Behavioral Systems. Users will
also find much information about NIH internal and external politics.
Calhoun was often on the cutting-edge of behavioral research during a
time of dramatic scientific organizational change at NIH. He arranged
the entire corpus of his research documentation within a series entitled
the Historical Flow Chart (HFC).In addition to this, Calhoun employed
several other organizational schemes, such as numbered Section on
Behavioral Systems (SOBS), Unit for Research of Behavioral Systems
(URBS), Internal Research Query (IRQ), Research Communications (RC),
“Review and Synthesis,” and alphanumeric document sets. Users will find
these organizational codes throughout the collection. These materials
provide exceptional insight into Calhoun’s own mind and thought
processes.
Images from the John B. Calhoun Papers at the National Library of Medicine
Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of
Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 586.
Graphic with multiple lines, points, and sides. Graphs, no date. National
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series VII: Negatives, Photographs, and Slides, 1960-1992, box 143,
folder 1.
Study 134, Rat Habitat. no date. National
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series III: Historical Flow Chart (HFC), 1909-1995, box 143, folder 1.
𝓜ice in Universe 25National
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series VII: Negatives, Photographs, and Slides, 1960-1992, box 142,
folder 21. Image #1633, no date.
Bagley, Hill, and Calhoun look over the mouse enclosure
National
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series VII: Negatives, Photographs, and Slides, 1960-1992, box 142,
folder 28.
𐊏ational
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series VII: Negatives, Photographs, and Slides, 1960-1992, box 142,
folder 50.
Scene #4, 1978.
Scores of mice cluster together, 1970. National
Library of Medicine, John B. Calhoun papers, 1909-1996. MS C 586.
Series VII: Negatives, Photographs, and Slides, 1960-1992, Box 143,
folder 17.
Additional Films at the National Library of Medicine
(Rattus norvegicus):a study conducted by John B. Calhoun from 1947 to 1959 near Towson Maryland
U.S. Government Films
The U.S. Army and the U.S. Public Health Serviceproduced many films
in the 1940s and 1950s about the habits of rats, the perils of
contamination and disease, how to ratproof homes and buildings, and as
necessary, how to poison rats effectively. See links below to two titles
from NLM Digital Collections.
In 2008, essay author Dr. Edmund Ramsden visited NLM and delivered a
History of Medicine lecture titled “Finding Humanity in Rat City: John
B. Calhoun’s Experiments at NIMH”.
In this 1970 piece published in the Western Journal of Medicine,
Calhoun writes about the destructive social implications of severe
overcrowding. “In the celebrated thesis of Thomas Malthus, vice and
misery impose the ultimate natural limit on the growth of populations.
Students of the subject have given most of their attention to misery,
that is, to predation, disease and food supply….But what of vice?
Setting aside the moral burden of this word, what are the effects…of
population density on social behavior?”
In a 1973 article published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine,
Dr. Calhoun describes his experiments and findings. “I shall largely
speak of mice, but my thoughts are on man, on healing, on life and its
evolution. Threatening life and evolution are the two deaths, death of
the spirit and death of the body….”
John B. Calhoun Film 7.1
