NATURE 



Z%V 



THURSDAY, APRIL 



1920. 



The Promotion of Medical Research. 



IT is evident from the correspondence evoked by 

 the leading- article in Nature of February 19 

 that many scientific workers are keenly interested 

 in the subject of the organisation of scientific re- 

 search and watch with some apprehension the 

 efforts made to bring- original investigators within 

 an official system. Francis Bacon supposed that 

 all scientific investigation must proceed from the 

 gfeneral to the particular according to a prescribed 

 set of rules, and gave in his " New Atlantis " " a 

 modell or description of a. college, instituted for 

 the interpreting of Nature, and the producing of 

 great and marvellous works for the benefit of man." 

 As every student of the history of science knows, 

 Bacon's method, and all other assumedly infallible 

 systems for creating knowledge, fail to furnish 

 a formula for scientific discovery. New truths 

 present themselves in unexpected places, and the 

 seeker after them has to follow whatever paths 

 seem to be the most promising. Knowing that 

 this is so, and cherishing the freedom of action 

 of true explorers, men of science view with sus- 

 picion any schemes for systematising research 

 which may deprive them of their birthright. They 

 do not, however, form a single corporate body 

 concerned solely with the promotion of discovery 

 by the encouragement of genius ; wherefore they 

 are rarely considered when research systems are 

 planned by the Bacons of our day. 



It was pointed out by Prof. Soddy in Nature 

 of February 26 that the position is different in 

 medical science, because in this case the pro- 

 fession is able to exact due and proper respect 

 for its members, and to insist, therefore, upon 

 administrative and other conditions which they 

 consider best suited to their needs • or to solve 

 the problems with which they are concerned. The 

 recent incorporation of the Medical Research 

 Committee as the Medical Research Council is 

 a very notable event in this connection. After its 

 seven years' work undet the National Health 

 Insurance Department, the Committee has beefi 

 transferred to' its new position as the Medical 

 Research Council, under the direction of a small 

 Cbmrnittee of the Privy Council' consisting of the 

 Lord President, the Minister of Health (England 

 and WdleS), the Secretary for Scotland, and the 

 Chief Secretary f6ir Ireland for the tirfte being. The 

 Council has 'been incorporated with a perpetual; 

 succession by Royal charter, with powers to hold 

 NO. 2634, VOL. 105] 



and use not only moneys and land derived from 

 Parliament, but also property or trusts vested in 

 it by private persons or bodies. It is not merely 

 an Advisory Council, but is in charge of its own 

 executive. These main features sufficiently mark 

 the interest and importance of the new step now 

 taken towards solving that difficult problem in 

 the art of government — the preservation of the 

 freedom and self-government of scientific research 

 work as to both initiative and execution, with 

 due regard to a just responsibility to Parliament 

 in respect of State endowment. 



The appointment of the Development Commis- 

 sion in 191 1 marked the first modern step towards 

 a solution of this problem of the State endowment 

 of research. For the first time an organisation 

 independent of the administrative Departments 

 was set up to initiate and direct scientific research 

 work in particular directions. The constitutional 

 position of the Commission was anomalous, its 

 functions were too various in kind, and the pi^r- 

 sonnet selected for it suffered in quality, perhaps, 

 because it depended too much upon the repre- 

 sentative principle. But the work of the Commis- 

 sion, especially in relation to agricultural research, 

 was in charge from the first of scientific men,' 

 and in effect, if not in form, the Commission had 

 executive as well as advisory powers. 



The next landmark in this development was thu 

 formation of the Medical Research Committee in 

 1 91 3 in connection with the National Health In- 

 surance Department. This was attached directly 

 to an administrative Department, but it was given 

 a singularly free constitution. The Committee 

 was composed of scientific men appointed for 

 their quality as counsellors without subservience 

 to any representative principle ; it was empowered 

 to appoint and dismiss its own servants, and it had 

 full executive authority within the widest limits of 

 research schemes of its own initiation when these 

 had received general Ministerial approval. 



The outbreak of war brought home to the 

 Government the grave rational need for a wider 

 and more liberal State endowment of research. 

 In 191 5 a scheme for public expenditure upon 

 scientific and industrial research was developed 

 under the Board of Education, where Dr. Addi- 

 son was then Parliamentary Secretary. It was 

 natural that this should be modelled in its early 

 stages upon the system of the Medical Research 

 Committee, of the working of which there had 

 already been two years of useful experience ; but 

 the new organisation soon departed from that 

 model in some essential points. It was early and 



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