Charles Armstrong (MD)

Charles Armstrong ( 25 September, 1886 Alliance, Ohio – 23 June, 1967 Bethesda, Maryland ) was an American physician in the U.S. Public Health Service.He  discovered in 1939 that polio virus can be transmitted to cotton rats, and started self-tests with nasal spray vaccination.

Education
In 1905 Charles Armstrong graduated from Alliance High School and went on to Mount Union College Preparatory School from 1905–1906. He took a B.S. degree from Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio in 1910. In 1915 he graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School, with an M.D. degree and did a General Internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital until 1916.

Civilian Work Experience
On 16 October, 1916 he was commissioned to the U.S. Public Health Service and served for six weeks at the Immigration Station, Ellis Island,  New York. From November 1916 to September 1918 he was Medical Officer on the United States Coast Guard Cutter (CSG) Seneca assigned to Cuban and European waters for 17 months until the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy during World War I. When in the fall of 1918 local outbreaks of pandemic influenza occurred Armstrong was in the  investigating team. From 1919 to 1921 he worked as an Epidemiological Aide to the Ohio State Department of Health. For the next decades, from 1921 until his retirement from active duty in 1950 he worked at the Hygienic Laboratory, remaining there through its administrative and name changes to the National Institutes of Health.From 1950 to 1963 Armstrong went on at the Institute doing daily research work without compensation.

Honors Received by Charles Armstrong

 * 1933 Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, Mount Union College; Alliance, Ohio
 * 1938-9 Appointment to General Advisory Committee of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
 * 1944 Election into the National Academy of Sciences
 * 1956 Election to the Polio Hall of Fame, which was dedicated in Warm Springs, Georgia on 2 January, 1958
 * 1966 Presentation of Distinguished Alumnus Award to Dr. Armstrong (and others) by the Alliance High School, Alliance, Ohio
 * 1966 Letter of congratulation on his 80th birthday from President Lyndon B. Johnson

Sources and references

 * Edward A. Beeman: Charles Armstrong, M.D.: A Biography, 2007 also online here (PDF)