JuNE 2, 1923] 
NATURE 
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on 
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The Rockefeller Foundation’s Gift of the Institute of Anatomy to 
University College, London. 
‘THE erection of the new building for the Depart- 
ment of Anatomy, which also provides an 
extension for the Department of Physiology of 
University College, London, completes the scheme 
for the development of the building for the Faculty 
of Medical Sciences which had long been contemplated. 
The proposal was first definitely formulated in 1907 
on the initiative of Prof. E. H. Starling, who took an 
active part in collecting the ig ad for the erection in 
1908 of the Department of Physiology, which was 
opened in 1909 by the Right Hon. R. B. (now 
Viscount) Haldane. The generosity of the late Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie made it 
possible in 1912 to add to 
the eastern end of the Insti- 
tute of Physiology a building 
to house the Department 
of Pharmacology, which was 
formally opened on Decem- 
ber 4 of that year by Sir 
Thomas Barlow, president 
of the Royal College of 
Physicians. When the War 
seemed to have destroyed all 
hope of any immediate com- 
eigen of the original scheme 
vy the addition at the 
western end of a building to 
house the Department of 
Anatomy, the Rockefeller 
Foundation became aware 
of the difficulty and offered 
to provide the means for 
completing a scheme which 
harmonised with its ideals 
in medical education. It 
was eager to give some 
striking expression of Ameri- 
can friendship to the British 
Empire, and was also anxious 
to enlist the help of the 
British medical schools in 
its great schemes for “ the 
promotion of the well-being 
of mankind throughout the 
world.”’ 
The Rockefeller Founda- 
tion has long recognised how 
much the well-being of man- 
kind is dependent on the 
advancement of medical 
knowledge and on_ the 
training of men who can spread the benefits of this 
knowledge among their fellow creatures, and to this 
end has spent large sums, not only in the United 
States, but also in South America and China, for the 
establishment of medical schools in which research 
and the education of medical men should go hand in 
hand. 
At the end of 1919 two representatives of the 
Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Wickliffe Rose, general 
director of the International Health Board, and Dr. 
Richard M. Pearce, adviser in medical education to 
the Foundation, came to Europe to inquire into the 
methods, problems, and needs of medical education in 
this country and on the Continent. While in London 
they were informed of the new developments in 
medical education which had taken place there under 
the stimulus and with the financial help of the Board 
of Education. This development consisted in the 
NO. 2796, VOL, 111] 
establishment at several of the medical schools of 
Clinical ‘‘ units ’’ in medicine, surgery, and gynecology, 
which were staffed by whole-time teachers, so that 
‘these subjects could be treated like the cognate 
Scientific subjects, the professor being able to devote 
all his working hours to teaching and research without 
being obliged to undertake private practice. This 
innovation especially excited the interest of the 
epresentatives of the Rockefeller Foundation, since 
e Foundation had already played a large part in the 
encouragement and endowment of this system of 
medical education in America. 

Fic, 1.—Institute of Anatomy, University College, London. 
y 
The essential feature of the system is the close 
Co-operation between all departments concerned in 
the medical curriculum. It is recognised that medi- 
Cine and surgery cannot advance except in associa- 
tion with other departments hitherto regarded as 
more purely scientific—in particular, pathology, 
anatomy, physiology, and bio-chemistry. 
At University College, Drs. Rose and Pearce found 
a hospital which had been founded for the express 
purpose of medical education. They found also 
active and well-equipped institutes for the study of 
some branches of medical science and definite plans 
for the completion of the whole scheme of medical 
education as soon as the necessary funds were avail- 
able. Thus in the College there was fair provision 
for physiology, pharmacology, and bio-chemistry, but 
no proper facilities for teaching and research in 
anatomy, embryology, and histology. In the clinical 
