Memorandum from Michael Heidelberger to the United States Army, Office of the Surgeon General

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Heidelberger was commissioned in the Sanitary Corp, where he was assigned to the Section on Combating Venereal Diseases. As summarized in this monthly report, his duty was mainly to conduct research on anti-syphilitics, research which dovetailed closely with the work on the chemotherapy of syphilis he had been conducting with Walter A. Jacobs at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He also mentioned his investigation of the anti-bacterial properties of medically important quinoline alkaloids (such as quinine) derived from the bark of South American Cinchona trees.