CPS Unit Number 115-37
Camp: 115
Unit ID: 37
Operating agency: OSRD
Opened: 10 1943
Closed: 10 1946
Workers
Total number of workers who worked in this camp: 0
CPS Unit No. 115, subunit [37], utilized men at CPS Camp No. 32 at West Campton, New Hampshire, to experiment with insecticides to control body lice in the effort to combat typhus fever.
Dr. W. A. Davis directed this OSRD project, which experimented with insecticides to kill lice in the effort to control typhus fever. Sponsored by the Laboratories of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, the study worked with eighty-seven men at CPS Camp No. 32 in West Campton, New Hampshire. Underwear was infested with lice and eggs and then distributed to the men to be worn continuously for three weeks. During that time, men were given various insecticides and lice were counted after each treatment. A group of twenty-five to thirty men carried lice for three week periods, all the while continuing their nine-hour work day building roads. The American Friends Service Committee provided project oversight. Two effective powders were discovered and recommended for use with both civilians and soldiers in typhus fever areas. (Sibley and Jacob p. 143-144)