NOTES 



Awards for Medical Discovery. 



Science Progress has frequently referred to the need which exists for 

 some form of awards for successful medical investigations. In our last 

 two numbers it was stated that a strong Conjoint Committee of the British 

 Science Guild and the British Medical Association had been formed to 

 consider the matter, and that this Committee had asked Sir Ronald Ross, 

 one of its members, for a report. The report was duly presented, and was 

 fully accepted by the Committee on December 22, 1919, with the emendation 

 that the State should give £20,000 a year for the awards suggested, instead 

 of the £15,000 advised by Sir Ronald Ross, and with some small adjustments. 

 The final report of the Committee will be found in Nature, January 8, 1920, 

 and in the Lancet, January 10. 



We now place upon record here, for convenience of reference, Sir Ronald 

 Ross's original report to the Committee, together with copies of two letters 

 to The Times of about the same date in which he explained the subject to 

 the general public. These are placed first because they afford a brief purview. 



From " The Times," December 10, 1919 



Sir, — Now that the war has awakened the nation to the value of medical 

 discovery, considerable attention is being given to the question as to how 

 best to stimulate still quicker advance in the future. The subject is of 

 importance to every living person, and indeed to generations unborn ; and 

 I therefore hope that you may be able to spare me some little space in which 

 to set forth my own analysis of the matter for consideration by others. 



The object is to encourage successful research wherever possible. Not 

 one, but two ways of doing this are open to us. The first is to help those 

 who are willing to undertake research, but cannot afford to do so, by pro- 

 viding laboratory accommodation, working expenses, and part-time or 

 whole-time salaries. Much in this line has already been done here and abroad 

 by establishing research-scholarships, and even fully-paid appointments, 

 either confined to research, or with only small teaching duties attached ; 

 and since 1914 the Medical Research Committee has been expending in this 

 way an annual grant of about £50,000 provided by Parliament — with results 

 that are well known. Similar grants have also been given for many years 

 past by the Royal Society and other learned bodies. 



Everyone will approve of this expenditure ; but it is made on the principle 

 of payment for prospective benefits. Research is generally a lottery — it 

 may or may not succeed, and the money thus granted may or may not be 

 lost. Hence the Committees concerned seldom (and rightly) allot the funds 

 except for researches on simple and straightforward questions admitting 

 of immediate reply, thus greatly limiting the fields of inquiry. Moreover, 

 the grants are often short-timed, and are sometimes withdrawn just as good 

 results are beginning to emerge ; while, lastly, even enthusiastic workers 

 often feel that they are losing time which might be expended much more 



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