26 



Survey of Neurobiology 



man endeavor. Applied science alone jns- 

 tifies the action of any clinical group in 

 applying to themselves the term "insti- 

 tute." It demands that each group should 

 be housed in a separate building where 

 patient and laboratory are close together 

 and yet not divorced, nor removed too far 

 from other departments of hospital or med- 

 ical school. 



Such a building is no more than the 

 house of the Institute. It provides the best 

 arrangement for a scientific approach to 

 the healing art. But that combination of 

 medicine and science can also be brought 

 about by discriminating segregation within 

 existing buildings. There is one prere- 

 quisite, however, the maintenance of a 

 clinical institute calls for annual financial 

 outlay on an entirely new scale. 



Neurological and Psychiatric Disease. 

 Understanding of disease of the nervous 

 system depends upon an understanding 

 of the normal function in all forms of life 

 and during various stages of development. 

 Clinicians should therefore draw heavily 

 on knowledge in the whole field of neuro- 

 biology. They must not be isolated in 

 their thinking. They need frequent con- 

 sultations with experts in all the biological 

 sciences. 



On the other hand, workers in biological 

 science have also something to gain from 

 this close association. Autopsy material 

 or a specimen removed from the brain of 

 a living patient at operation may prove 

 a key to important advance in the hands 

 of well-trained neuroanatomists, provided 

 the subject can be studied psychologically 

 before and after the removal. Or the op- 



portunity may be one for the chemist, the 

 pathologist, or the embryologist. 



Similarly, abnormal behavior in man may 

 be related to chemical abnormalities and 

 may be compared with behavior in sub- 

 human forms. This type of study benefits 

 patients and stimulates scientific advance 

 in laboratory and ward. 



Conclusion. Modern medicine demands 

 that workers skilled in the basic sciences 

 be established in close association with 

 neurological and psychiatric departments. 

 There is a mounting need for the estab- 

 lishment of fellowships in all of the basic 

 sciences of the field of neurobiology. Such 

 fellowships should be used for study of 

 neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, biochem- 

 istry, psychology, etc., in those laboratories. 

 But fellowships in the basic sciences should 

 also be available for such work in the clin- 

 ical departments of psychiatry and of neu- 

 rology and neurosurgery and of endocrin- 

 ology. 



Adequate intellectual liaison means re- 

 organization. It means the establishment 

 of a closer relationship between existing 

 university departments, or the support of 

 special scientific units in clinical depart- 

 ments, or the provision of fellowships for 

 the study of basic science in the cinical 

 departments. It also means that clinical 

 psychiatrists, neurologists and neurosur- 

 geons should be trained in one of the dis- 

 ciplines of neurobiological basic science. 

 It means that basic scientists should be 

 introduced to the need of the patient and 

 to the illuminating experiments which dis- 

 ease inflicts on man. Only under such 

 leadership can scientific and therapeutic 

 work go forward effectively. 



