Faculty Bibliography

Rare would be the American Nobel Prize winner in medicine whose path to that coveted award was not supported by N.I.H. funds. Foreign laureates have benefited as well. But the record has not been perfect. The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, while praising the N.I.H. for making rapid advances in the battle against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, criticized the agency last month for ''inadequate Federal coordination'' of development of an AIDS vaccine. ''Initially, the politics centered on convincing the public to support biomedical research,'' Dr. Gert Brieger, a medical historian at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, said. But, Dr. Brieger went on, ''As N.I.H. got bigger, more bureaucratic, more cumbersome and more was at stake, you began to have rivalries and internal political pressures. That's the kind of politics that did not exist in the beginning and it can do a lot more damage in the next century.'' Dr. [James B. Wyngaarden] cited two other areas of ''potential harm'' he said had tarnished the image of the N.I.H. and the rest of the biomedical community: a growing number of instances of scientific fraud and lapses in concern about animal welfare. Although such abuses have been few, Dr. Wyngaarden said, ''they are more widespread than we would like to admit.'' Congressional questioning has been more probing, he said, adding, ''The reflex support of N.I.H. is not as strong as it once was.''

Dr. Berry was best known as a leader in medical education. He became dean of Harvard Medical School in 1949, when medical scientists were making major advances. Over the next 17 years, until he retired in 1966, Dr. Berry was credited with shaping the quality of medical education in a scientifically explosive era. In his tenure as dean of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Berry doubled its endowment, largely by enlisting support from private corporations. ''We are not above shaking the tree,'' Dr. Berry said. At the same time, he favored Federal aid to medical education as long as such aid did not involve Federal control. Dr. Berry married the former Elizabeth L'Estrange Duncan in 1923. She died three years later from a streptococcal infection as a complication of measles. In 1969, Dr. Berry married Mariana Wilkinson, who survives him. He is also survived by his daughter, Mrs. Cloyd Laporte Jr.; two stepchildren, Alden Ashforth of Los Angeles and Mrs. Donald Geoffroy of Santa Cruz, Calif., and three grandchildren, Elizabeth Duncan, Marguerite Caroline and Cloyd Laporte 3d

* A chronic nursing shortage leaves nurses overworked and some patients overlooked. ''Nurses are operating in a minefield,'' said Katherine Abelson, executive vice president of District 1199 of the Hospital Workers Union, which represents 4,000 nurses. ''There is dangerous understaffing.'' * Antiquated facilities handicap the efforts of doctors and staff, particularly in the municipal hospitals. ''Everyone may not be entitled to the Ritz,'' said Dr. Donald Wilson, chief of medicine at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, ''but everyone is entitled to a Howard Johnson's, and we are not doing that.'' A state inspector subsequently said the doctor had not informed the patient of the risk, as he should have. Beth Israel officials said they would issue a memo advising doctors to document ''the reasonable and foreseeable risks of all invasive procedures'' and to avoid doing bone marrow tests in the breast bone ''except in extraordinary circumstances.''

AFTER EXAMINING A PATIENT, THE DOC-tor makes a diagnosis, a common one: ''You've got a virus - the bug that's going around.'' The advice is just as familiar: ''Rest and drink plenty of liquids. You'll feel like yourself in no time.'' Calling a virus ''the bug that's going around,'' however, is an oversimplification. Most common viral illnesses can be caused by any one of hundreds of viruses that may be circulating through a community. These viruses spread in various ways: some respiratory bugs are dispersed as droplets in sneezes; other viruses are spread through contaminated food or water, a common cause of diarrhea and stomach upsets. What is known about viral illnesses is that they are caused by a microbe that is both infectious (capable of invading and multiplying in the body) and communicable (capable of causing illness by itself or through one of its toxic products). But this does not necessarily mean that the microbe is contagious (spread by person-to-person contact). There are at least 300 known viruses, members of the 17 ''families'' that infect humans. As many as 200 human viruses cause the common cold alone. Many others can cause the flu. An additional 40 virus families affect plants and animals

The White House Counsel, Peter Wallison, said he could not estimate how many workers would be affected by the order. He added that the President's plan calls for agency heads to establish testing programs according to the ''agency's mission and its employees' duties and the danger to the public health and safety, or to national security.'' Dr. Richard L. Hawks, chief of the research technology branch at the National Institute of Drug Abuse in Rockville, Md., said that the technology for detecting drugs in urine ''will work, if used properly, but we don't know how often it is used right.'' Guide to Essentials of Testing A trusted worker ''must watch each person urinate into a bottle,'' Dr. Robert Newman, president of Beth Israel Hospital in New York, said. ''If that is not done, it's a sham.''

For reasons doctors do not understand, almost all attacks follow sore throats caused by streptococcal bacteria; but only a few strep throats lead to rheumatic fever. The prevention of rheumatic fever is the chief reason why doctors perform throat cultures looking for the group A streptococci that precede it. Rheumatic fever causes inflammation and swelling of the joints that is intensely painful for about a day, then abates over the next week or so as the swelling subsides. The usual targets are the joints in the legs, particularly the knees, but the swelling and other symptoms often migrate from joint to joint. More than one joint may be involved at a time and the condition can be quite painful. Moreover, attacks of rheumatic fever tend to recur after additional bouts of strep throat. However, it usually does not permanently damage the affected joints. There are five major and three minor manifestations, according to this system. The major ones, most useful in making a diagnosis, are: inflammation of the heart; arthritis; continuous involuntary jerky movements of the body, halting and slurred speech and facial grimaces known as chorea that disappear in a few weeks with no permanent damage; a rash that does not itch and bumps under the skin. The minor ones are fever, joint pains and a history of previous attacks of rheumatic fever. The presence of two major or one major and two minor manifestations signals a high likelihood of rheumatic fever

The three authors of the report first duscussed electric shock therapy for snakebites two years ago in the London laboratory of Dr. Aharles D. MacKenzie of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine . [Jeffrey F. Williams] recalled how surprised he and MacKenzie were when, during a chat the subject turned to venoms and Dr. Ronald H. Guderian, the missionary physician in Ecuador, described his experiments with the electric shock therapy for snakebites. Williams said Guderian described the notion, widespread in Ecuador, that electricity was a therapy for snakebites. He said snakebite victims try to get to an engine in order to run a wire carrying electricity from its coil into the area of the bite. Guderian did just that. Then Williams and MacKenzie paid him a visit in Ecuador at the Hospital Vozandes in Quito and at a clinic in Zapallo Grande in northwestern Ecuador. When Williams saw the treatment firsthand, he said he realized 'it was a first-aid measure that worked better than anything else.'

''His willingness to follow an uncharted course demonstrated his faith and trust in God and that faith will not go unrewarded.'' said the Rev. Othmar Schroeder, Mr. Schroeder's uncle, who delivered the homily. ''God will look down in favor on the service he performed for others.'' In an interview about two weeks after his implant surgery in 1984, Mr. Schroeder said he felt ''super.'' With great excitement in his voice, he invited this interviewer to put a hand on his chest and feel the mechanical device inside beating away like ''an old-time threshing machine,'' as he put it. Dr. [William C. DeVries] says now his team is ''ready to go again'' on another permanent implant despite the disappointments and despite the views of such eminent experts as Dr. Michael DeBakey, a pioneering heart surgeon at Baylor University in Houston, who says the artificial heart should be used only until human organs are available. But Dr. DeBakey added: ''The death of Mr. Schroeder shouldn't be the death of the artificial heart program.''

In this case, all three doctors knew that injections of antivenoms would prevent death or injury in snakebite cases when the biting snakes could be identified and when the antivenoms were available. ''The problem is that people living in a jungle often get bitten four hours canoe ride from anywhere there might be an antivenom,'' Dr. [Jeffrey F. Williams] said. He said he and Dr. [Charles D. MacKenzie] encouraged ''Ron to pull together his patient records and to collect evidence that was good enough to build a story around.'' Dr. Williams said he had reviewed the entire scientific literature on the chemical makeup of venoms and found they were very complex, some consisting of up to 10 toxic substances. ''It is not a simple toxic effect, and it is hard to understand how something like electricity can have an effect on such a wide range of processes,'' Dr. Williams said. ''It just doesn't make sense right now.'' Dr. Williams said he had milked snakes in Ecuador and carried the venoms back with him for further research. In the next step, he said he and other researchers at Michigan State University plan to find an animal suitable for use in study of the electroshock therapy and venoms. They hope to determine the correct dose of electricity, to learn why the jolts work and to find out what current does when it passes through the body. ''I want a reasonable scientific explanation,'' Dr. Williams said