ROBERT S. MORISON 



In many areas of the world aid from foreign governments is 

 looked upon with some suspicion. Private agencies are, how- 

 ever, welcomed and incidentally provide object lessons of the 

 importance of private initiative to societies which lack such 

 tradition. The recognized disinterestedness of private philan- 

 thropy may be especially useful in the organization of inter- 

 national research projects requiring cooperation of investigators 

 in different areas. Such programs are still rather rare but there 

 are tempting possibilities for developing productive work on 

 malnutrition, the incidence of atherosclerosis, and the control 

 of epidemics on an international basis. 



With all these possibilities before it, private philanthropy 

 need not worry about being overshadowed by the growth of 

 tax-supported aid to basic research. Indeed it might rather wel- 

 come being relieved of some of its more conventional assign- 

 ments. Freed in this way it might even try to recapture some 

 of the elan, the pride, the joy in supporting creativeness which 

 characterized the Renaissance patrons of science mentioned at 

 the beginning of this paper. 



2 4 8 



