THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



41; 



THE PEOGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE EOCKEFELLEE INSTITUTE 

 FOE MEDICAL EESEAECH 



The Eockefeller Institute for Med- 

 ical Eesearch has issued an interesting 

 brochure giving an account of its his- 

 tory, organization and equipment. The 

 institution was incorporated in 1901 

 with a board of directors consisting of 

 seven distinguished pathologists, at 

 which time Mr. John D. Rockefeller 

 pledged a sum of $200,000 to be given 

 in ten annual installments. At the end 

 of the first year, he promised an addi- 

 tional sum of a million dollars for a 

 building and support, and in that year 

 the Schermerhorn estate on the East 

 Eiver, between 64th and 67th Streets, 

 was purchased. Buildings were erected 

 costing about $300,000, the formal 

 opening taking place on May 11, 1906. 

 In the following year Mr, Eockefeller 

 gave an endowment of over two million, 

 six hundred thousand dollars, and in 

 1908 arrangements were made for the 

 construction of a hospital which cost 

 $900,000. Other gifts followed from 

 Mr. Eockefeller and the endowment 

 fund npw amounts to over $7,000,000. 



At first the funds of the institute were 

 used only for grants to investigators, 

 but in 1902 Dr. Simon Flexner, then 

 professor in the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, was elected director, and in 1904 

 research was begun by the institute. 

 The original staff included, in addition 

 to Dr. Flexner, Drs. S. J. Meltzer, E. L. 

 Opie, H. Noguchi, P. A. Levene and 

 J. Auer. Dr. Opie has since removed 

 to St. Louis, and the scientific staff has 

 been strengthened by the addition of 

 Drs. Jacques Loeb, Alexis Carrel, Eufus 

 Cole and other distinguished investiga- 

 tors. The original directors of the in- 

 stitute agreed in 1908 to become them- 

 selves a board of scientific directors, 

 and to transfer to a board of trustees 

 the management of the property. Both 

 boards appear to form the corporation. 



] their relations being somewhat unusual. 

 The present board of trustees was ap- 

 pointed by the board of scientific di- 

 rectors, but they will in future be 

 selected by the trustees. The arrange- 

 ment, however, gives much more influ- 



! ence to scientific men than the organi- 



' zation of our universities, as the board 



: of scientific directors retains control of 

 the scientific work supported by the 



j annual income, and one third of the 

 trustees holding the property are men 

 of science who are also members of the 

 board of scientific directors. 



The laboratory building is a fire- 

 proof structure of light gray brick 

 and limestone, commanding a beautiful 

 view of the East Eiver and the coun- 

 try beyond. There are laboratories 

 of pathology, bacteriology, chemistry, 

 physiology, pharmacology, experimental 

 medicine and experimental surgery, each 

 of which is under the charge of a 

 member or associate of the institute 

 with a staff of assistants. The hospital 

 includes a main building and an iso- 

 lation pavilion for contagious diseases. 

 Its capacity is about seventy beds and 

 its work is confined to selected cases 

 bearing on a limited number of dis- 



' eases, those first selected having been 

 acute lobar pneumonia, infantile par- 

 alysis, syphilis and certain types of 

 cardiac disease. No charge is made 

 for persons treated in the hospital, and 



1 all discoveries and inventions made by 



j those working in the institution become 

 its property to be placed freely at the 

 service of the public. 



\ The institution publishes The Jour- 

 nal of Experimental Medicine, a series 



; of monographs and a series of studies. 



j In its first ten years the institute has 

 produced a large number of researches 

 of great importance both for pure sci- 

 ence and for applied medicine. Some 

 of these have been described in this 

 journal by the director. Dr. Flexner, 



