The Great Imitator (with printed letter from Surgeon General Thomas Parran)

Pictorial wraps, 8vo, 14pp. Printed on pale green paper stock. Very Good with mild soil and wear to exterior, stamp on the cover: "Distributed by the Johnstown Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis..." Scarce pamphlet "presented by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as a contribution to the campaign against venereal diseases, and especially syphilis, carried on by the U.S. Public Health Service, the American Social Hygiene Association, State and local Departments of Health, and medical societies." Expanded from an earlier 8p publication by the American Social Hygiene Association. OCLC lists 2 copies of this pamphlet (Ohio State, Univ. Rochester Med Center).

Typed circular letter "To Fathers" laid in, encouraging them to use the pamphlet to talk to their children: "For the first time in your memory and mine, decent people are talking openly about what can be done to stop the spread of the disease syphilis... Many of us had not realized, however, until national studies had been made of the problem, that it is pre-eminently a disease of youth."

The national studies Parran refers to were largely conducted under his own supervision. Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service from 1936 to 1948 and a founder of the World Health Organization, Parran's legacy in public health is tarnished by the unethical practices in research conducted during his tenure as Surgeon General, including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.