488 



NATURE 



[January 8, 1920 



mother-cults of India by Dr. VV. Crooke. Mr. Peake's 

 communication on " Santiago : The Evolution of a 

 Patron Saint" dealt with the survival of a menhir 

 cult in the Iberian peninsula and its association and 

 confusion with the cult of St. James. 



In a joint meeting with the Psychology sub-section, 

 Prof. Carveth Read read a paper on "Magic and 

 Science," and the Rev. H. J. l3. Astley a paper on 

 the relation of primitive art and magic. 



Papers of a general ethnographic character were 

 few in number. Mr. F. J. Richards's paper on the 

 Badaga clans of Southern India was a valuable and 

 comprehensive study, which included a detailed 

 account of an interesting and important harvest fes- 

 tival. Mr. E. W. Pearson Chinnery in his paper on 

 " Stonework and Goldfields in New Guinea " 

 described a number of stone objects, including pestles 

 and mortars, which showed that the country was 

 visited at some time, presumably in search of gold, 

 by a stone-using people, differing in many respects 

 from the present inhabitants. In a second paper 

 Mr. Chinnery described the people of the hilly 

 country of the interior, and maintained that there 

 was in these regions an extensive Negrito element 

 similar to the Mafulu described by Williamson. 



An afternoon session was devoted to a visit to the 

 Dorchester Museum, where the party was hospitably 

 entertained bv the Curator and Mrs. Acland. \ visit 

 was also paid to the Maumbury Rings, where the 

 results of the excavations were explained by Mr. 

 C Prideaux. 



REWARDS FOR MEDICAL DISCOVERY A 



I. Definitions. — Medical discovery may here be 

 defined as being : (i) The ascertainment of new 

 facts or theorems bearing on the human body in 

 health, and the nature, prevention, cure, or mitiga- 

 tion of injuries and diseases of human beings. 

 (2) The invention of new methods or instruments for 

 the improvement of sanitary, medical, and surgical 

 practice, or of scientific and pathological work. 



II. Re.asons for Rew.\rding Medical Discovery. 

 — These are : (i) To encourage medical investigation. 



(2) To discharge a moral obligation incurred by the 

 public for its use of private effort. 



III. Various Possible Types of Rewards. — 

 (i) Titles and honours given by the State, by universi- 

 ties, and by other public bodies. (2) Prizes and medals. 



(3) Patents. (4) Promotions and appointments. 

 (5) Pecuniary awards by the State. 



IV. General Principles of .'\ssessment. — It will 

 probably be agreed that in the interests of the public 

 all medical discoveries should, if possible, receive some 

 kind of acknowledgment or recompense. But in view 

 of the very variable conditions, nature, and effects of 

 particular investig-ations, it will often be difficult to 

 assess the kind of recompense most suitable for each. 



In the first place, a distinction should be drawn 

 between compensation and reward. Bv compensation 

 is meant an act of justice done for the purpose of re- 

 imbursement of losses ; by reward, an act of grace in 

 appreciation of services rendered. 



The following different cases should next be con- 

 sidered : — 



A. Discoveries involving pecuniary or other loss to 

 an investigator, either by direct monetary sacrifice, or 



' Report presented hy the Joint Committee of the British Medical Asso- 

 ciation and the British Science Guild on Awards for Medical Discovery. 

 The members of the joint committee are: — Representing the B.M. A,'. Sir 

 T. Clifford Allbutt. K.C.H , F.R.S. ; I >r. R. T. Leiper ; Prof. Benjamin 

 Moore, F.R.S. ; Mr. E. B. Turner; and Prof. J. S. Haldane, FR.S. 

 Representing the B.S.G.: Lt.-Gen. Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B. ; Col. Sir 

 Ronald Ross, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S. ; Prof W. Bayliss, F.R.S. ; Dr. 

 D. Sommerville ; Sir Richard Gregory ; and Lt.-Col. O'Meara, C.M.G. 



NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



by expenditure of time, or by diminution of profes- 

 sional practice, without corresponding pecuniary gains. 

 A great example is that of Edward Jenner, who occu- 

 pied himself so closely with the investigation of vac- 

 cination against smallpox that he lost most of his 

 medical practice, and also considerable sums in ex- 

 penses. The plea for compensation in such cases is 

 unanswerable; and in 1802 and 1807 Parliament fuUv 

 acknowledged its obligations under this head by giving 

 Jenner compensation in two sums of lo.oooi. and 



20,OOoZ. 



B. Discoveries which have increased the professional 

 emoluments of the investigator by enhanced practice or 

 other means. Such are, frequently, improvements in 

 surgical operations or medical treatment, which lead 

 to increased practice. Another case is that of serums, 

 etc., which may have been protected and put on the 

 market. Here compensation cannot be demanded, 

 and pecuniary awards may be generally held to be un- 

 necessary. On the other hand, honours are often, 

 and justly, bestowed upon such work. 



C. Discoveries which involve neither gain nor loss 

 to the investigator. This class includes most of the 

 good, and sometimes great, clinical, pathological, and 

 sanitary discoveries achieved in the world. Here also 

 compensation can scarcely be demanded, and honours 

 are already often given ; but pecuniary awards should 

 be sometimes bestowed as an act of grace when the 

 value of a discovery to the public (or to a Govern- 

 ment) greatly exceeds the emoluments of the investi- 

 gator ; and this principle should hold even in the case 

 of men who were directly paid for undertaking the 

 researches which led to their discoveries, especiallv 

 when such payment was (as usual) small and the 

 resulting discovery great. 



The following particular cases, which sometimes 

 occur, should be specifically noted : — (i) Men who have 

 refused lucrative posts in order to complete their re- 

 searches. (2) Men who have refused to protect their 

 work for fear of limiting its application. (3) Men 

 who have carried out investigations for Governments 

 for little or no payment on patriotic grounds. 



The following considerations must generally be borne 

 in mind : — 



(a) Honours (which are always much esteemed) are 

 usually givt'n as much (or more) for clinical success as 

 for medical discoveries, though the latter possess a far 

 wider influence and application than do the former. 



(b) When given for clinical work or for discoveries 

 under class B, honours often confer distinct pecuniary 

 advantages by enhancement of practice, but for dis- 

 coveries under classes .\ and C they have no such 

 effect, and cases are on record where they tend to 

 reduce emoluments by unfitting recipients for certain 

 posts. 



(c) Mpst people enter the medical profession (at con- 

 siderable expanse) not only from altruistic motives, but 

 also to make a living, and it is usually only at a later 

 period that they take up scientific investigation — either 

 from a sense of dutv, or from predilection, or merely 

 because a good opportunity offers. When, therefore, 

 a man finds that his scientific work, however successful 

 and important it may have been, has actually yielded 

 him less emolument than he might have obtained from 

 ordinary clinical work, he feels naturally discouraged, 

 and his experience prevents young men of ability from 

 followintj his example, and therefore tends to check 

 the prosecution of studies which are of the highest 

 value to humanity. 



(d) In the public interest, then, this committee begs 

 to insist upon the principles : — (i) That no medical 

 discovery should be allowed to entail financial loss 

 upon him who has made it. (2) That the compensa- 

 tion or reward which he deserves should be assessed 



