FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Recollections of Early Biomedical Moon-Mice Investigations
CONSTANTINE D. J. GENERALES, JR., United States
The year was 1931. The place was Zurich. The
protagonists were two students, one aspiring to
become an engineer, the other, a physician.
It was in the beginning of March when I decided
to have my first lunch at the student cafeteria open
to matriculants of the University of Zurich and of
the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule. I had
just arrived from an intersemester vacation in
Athens after having spent my sixth semester (third
year) at the University of Berlin, and I had found
quarters at 34 Scheuchzerstrasse overlooking the
beautiful lake of Zurich. My decision to continue
my medical studies at various university centers
such as Athens, Heidelberg, Zurich, Paris and
Berlin was not a random one but based on a preconceived
plan to combine study and travel with
attendance at lectures by professors of note in the
various fields of medicine, e.g., Menge, Naegeli,
Gougerot, Sauerbruch, His.
As I was waiting in line at the cafeteria, I happened
to overhear a brief conversation in English
behind me. At that time this was unusual since
German and Schweizer Deutsch and some French
were the most frequently spoken languages in that
part of the country. Curious and eager to speak
English again, I turned around and faced a tall
blond chap who informed me that he had just
arrived from Berlin. We lunched together. After
the usual exchange of amenities, he unexpectedly
turned the conversation to rockets, and of all
things, of using them to get to the moon. He mentioned
Herman Oberth, the German genius of
rocketry, and Goddard, the immortalized American
rocket pioneer. This German lad was quite serious
about space travel and especially, of getting to the
moon. I professed ignorance about the subject, even
barely recollecting the distance between Earth and
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the lunar satellite. My field was medicine and all
my subjects and efforts were directed toward obtaining
a medical degree. I just could not see, as a
young student, how rockets and getting to the
moon were going to help me in taking care of sick
people!
The first conversation was quite brief, we finished
our lunch and parted. Approximately two weeks
later we met again by chance and the topic again
reverted to the construction of rockets to get to the
moon. To me, this whole thing, as I recall, seemed
rather ridiculous, and I began making fun of my
friend with "a one-track mind" until he reached
into his pocket and pulled out a letter and asked
me to read it. The envelope was postmarked Berlin.
I remember staring at the indeciphrable equations
pertaining to mathematical problems and solutions
in rocket design and propulsion. I was dumbfounded
and deeply impressed when I recognized
the signature to be that of Professor Albert Einstein.
The recipient of the letter that I held in my hand
was my newly found friend, Wernher Freiherr von
Braun.
As I read the letter and listened to Wernher I
became aware of the possibility of future space
travel and realized that it was not as absurd as it
had seemed at first. Remember, the year was 1931,
two years before the founding of the famous British
Interplanetary Society. The question immediately
arose in my mind: what about man, can he withstand
all these unknown forces and new experiences
while being propelled by a sheet of flame into the
vastness of space with the contemplated rocket?
Right then and there I realized the inescapable
necessity for the interdependence of medicine and
technology in this great venture and I became a
convert to the idea of exploration of space and