March 



920] 



NATURE 



43 



The Work of the Medical Research Committee. 



WHEN a certain small fraction of the National 1 

 Health Insurance funds was set apart for ! 

 purposes of research, the experiment was regarded i 

 even by many scientific men with suspicion or \ 

 indifference. It was suggested that the State aid, j 

 thus provided for research, would result only in 

 creating a new class of Civil Servants, and might, 

 indeed, lead to the sterilisation of such of the 

 younger men as had earned appointment under 

 the scheme by the excellence of their early re- 

 searches. It was also objected that any concen- 

 tration of State aid in a central institute or among 

 a single group of workers would be effected only at 

 the price of starvation of the work already being 

 carried out with insufficient means in the various 

 universities and research institutes of the country. 

 The work of the Medical Research Committee 

 during the first five years of its existence has 

 brilliantly refuted such a priori objections, and 

 has, indeed, justified the view that the action taken 

 in 1914 represents the greatest advance in the 

 organisation of scientific effort in the service of 

 medical science that has yet taken place in this 

 country. The Committee seized the opportunity 

 afforded by the war, and initiated and supported 

 numerous investigations urgently required for the 

 effective treatment of our soldiers in the field. So 

 well did it succeed that, by the end of the war, 

 it had secured for practically all the merr fitted 

 for original inquiry not only the opportunity, but 

 also adequate payment, either by way of com- 

 missions in the Navy, or Army, or Air Force, or 

 by research grants. 



As the report points out, the casualties and 

 mortality of peace are not smaller and less painful, 

 but only less conspicuous and more familiar, than 

 those of war. For example, the epidemic 

 of influenza killed during a few months more 

 young people in their prime than fell in battle 

 during the whole war. Fully justified, then, are 

 the efforts made by the Medical Research Com- 

 mittee to create and maintain organised scientific 

 work, which shall repeat and continue for the 

 maladies of peace the same success as was effected 

 for thos^ of war. Taking the difficulties of the 

 situation into account, the report is really a won- 

 derful record of achievement. 



The Committee carries out its work in two 

 directions. In the first place, it maintains a small 

 nucleus of workers in whole-time service. Most 

 of these will pursue their researches in the central 

 institute, located in the old Mount Vernon Hos- 

 pital, which has been adapted for this purpose; 

 though, where the object of the work requires it, 

 these workers may be attached to hospitals or 

 laboratories elsewhere. Thus during the past year 

 both Dr. Lewis and Dr. Elliott were attached as 

 whole-time workers to University College Hos- 

 pital, and other whole-time workers pursue their 

 researches at Cambridge, Oxford, and St. 



1 National Health Insurance. Fifth Annual Feport of the Medical 

 Research Committee, 191S-19. Pp. 90. (London : H.M. Stationery 

 Office.) 



NO. 2628, VOL. 105] 



Bartholomew's Hospital. In the second place, the 

 Committee assists organised research already in 

 progress at different universities and medical 

 schools by means of grants made in payment for 

 part-time work. We are glad to see that the 

 Committee declares its desire to assist in this 

 manner the work of the units which are being 

 formed in London for higher clinical teaching and 

 research. 



The record of work for the past year must be 

 regarded as highly creditable and a striking testi- 

 mony to the value of the aid which the Committee 

 has been able to render. Scarcely any aspect of 

 medical science has been left untouched. Collec- 

 tive investigations have been undertaken on tuber- 

 culosis, on dysentery, on typhoid and paratyphoid, 

 on the treatment of wounds, and on cerebro-spinal 

 fever and influenza. Fundamental problems of 

 nutrition have been attacked especially by the 

 Committee on Accessory Food Factors, which has 

 carried out researches not only in this country, 

 but also in Vienna, and thrown much light on 

 the causation of rickets and on the factors con- 

 cerned in normal growth. The investigation of 

 the disorders of the cardio-vascular system, in- 

 cluding the causation of soldier's heart (in which 

 such valuable results were attained during the 

 war), has been continued, and a special depart- 

 ment for this purpose has been instituted under 

 the care of Dr. Lewii^. The research into trench 

 nephritis is being continued by Dr. MacLean and 

 extended to include all forms of nephritis. The 

 report records also the results of researches on 

 the effects of oxygen lack, on chronic arthritis,, on 

 wound shock, on industrial fatigue, and on many 

 other subjects. 



The great value of the Committee's work is 

 that in a time of transition, when the community 

 is slowly awakening to the value and necessity of 

 research in medicine, but has not yet provided the 

 necessary organisation and support, it is making 

 it possible for practically all provided with the 

 necessary intellectual endowments to take up 

 scientific work, at any rate for a time. No doubt 

 many of these workers will later pass into prac- 

 tice ; but the Committee by its action is creating 

 a reserve of scientific workers, from which the 

 country will be able to draw its teachers and teams 

 of research workers, when once it recognises the 

 need for them and is prepared to provide such 

 salaries that a man can devote himself to the 

 advancement of knowledge without taking vows 

 of celibacy and poverty. There will always be a 

 small handful of men in every country who will 

 devote their lives to this cause. Faradays, how- 

 ever, are few and far between, and the vast 

 majority of men of first-class intelligence are not 

 prepared to make the supreme sacrifice. The 

 country has need of these men to fill its depleted 

 ranks of scientific workers, academic and indus- 

 trial, but it will not obtain their services until it 

 can provide a career in science equal in status and 

 remuneration to that afforded by other professions. 



