In this issue of The Journal are the papers presented at the Ninth County Medical Societies Civil Defense Conference held in Chicago on Nov. 8-9, 1958, and sponsored by the Council on National Defense of the American Medical Association. During the two-day conference, reports were presented on resuscitation techniques, shelter habitability, public health techniques for a nuclear age, reviews of three recent civil defense medical test programs, workshop sessions, and movies on selected subjects. This interesting program attracted representatives from 35 states and several foreign countries, and many important lessions were learned in the care of emergency medical services for large numbers of people.
Nearly every physician must ask himself the question how he would best function under conditions of disaster and what kind of medical care could he give. The threat of modern-day warfare with its capability of mass destruction of huge elements of our nation has imposed on