April 30, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



425 



broad enough to interest manufacturers. An 

 instance of this is the Gibbs breathing ap- 

 paratus which has proven so efficacious in 

 mine rescue work. Heretofore, there has 

 been no satisfactory way of accomplishing the 

 production of such a device, there being no 

 agency authorized to negotiate the business. 

 Under this bill this agency would be provided. 



There is another, allied type of invention 

 which is of great importance to scientists, 

 and so indirectly to the public, and which 

 will secure development under this admin- 

 istration. This concerns improvements in 

 scientific instruments and apparatus. The 

 sphere of employment of these things being 

 comparatively restricted, their manufacture 

 does not ordinarily attract capital, and cer- 

 tainly yields no great profit to the inventors. 



A situation in the patent field unsatisfac- 

 tory to the government is encountered in cer- 

 tain cases where investigations are conducted 

 jointly by experts of the government and 

 those of outside agencies, such as universities, 

 technical schools, state institutions, and in- 

 dustrial concerns. More and more of such 

 cooperative work is being done, to the great 

 benefit of both the government and industry. 

 During the course of it, inventions are some- 

 times evolved through the mutual efforts of 

 the cooperators, and patents are granted 

 therefor. 



Now, it is highly important, if not abso- 

 lutely imperative, that such a patent, or 

 group of patents, be administered and devel- 

 oped as a imit, b^it the problem is at once 

 presented as to how this shall be accom- 

 plished, to the end that the maximum benefit 

 to industry shall be secured, the patent shall 

 be guarded against falling into adverse hands, 

 the control of the government over the pro- 

 duction of its experts shall be maintained, 

 and, at the same time, the equitable interests 

 of the inventors shall be conserved. It is con- 

 ceived that the solution will be found in the 

 administration here provided. 



Perhaps no discoveries in history exceed in 

 importance those made in the last century 

 concerning the nature of diseases, their pre- 

 vention and cure, yet the i)€ople who have 



made these discoveries have frequently gone 

 unrewarded. The salaries of pathological 

 professors are, as a rule, barely more than 

 pittances, although their work is of trans- 

 cendent importance to the human race. In- 

 creased practise through possible gain of pres- 

 tige, by accomplishment, does not make up to 

 these men the reward which should be theirs, 

 and even the money thus acquired is no real 

 reward, but remuneration earned by addi- 

 tional labor. Indeed, pathological work often 

 tends to detract from the earning power of 

 physicians as people are only too prone to 

 regard research workers in the field of medi- 

 cine as faddists and charlatans. The dis- 

 covery of vaccination, by Jenner, almost 

 ruined him. This situation influenced the 

 British government to provide him with a 

 pension.^ 



This leads to a further phase of the patent 

 situation that has bearing here. It is con- 

 trary to the ethics of the medical profession 

 for its members to patent new devices and 

 curative agents. The consequent absence of 

 patent protection eliminates control of these 

 things, though control in many instances is 

 vitally necessary. Great harm has been 

 worked by the manufacture of medicines 

 getting into adverse hands, and it has been 

 necessary in some cases to have special legis- 

 lation passed to relieve the situation. 



Under the measure here proposed such in- 

 ventions, fraught with great possibilities for 

 good or ill, may be wisely administered for 

 the welfare and protection of the public. To 

 quote from an editorial written upon this 

 Bill in the Journal of the American Medical 

 Association, December 20, 1919 page 1887: 



It has been regarded as against the principles of 

 medical ethics to patent instruments or medica- 

 ments for personal gain. However, as was pointed 

 out recently in The Journal, this does not mean 

 that patenting per se is wrong; in fact, it is at 

 times desirable to paten/t new discoveries, especially 

 drugs, in order to insure reliability. The problem 

 has been how to make available the patented prod- 

 uct in the interest both of the public and of med- 

 ical science. It would seem that the proposed bill 



3 Science, November 14, 1919, p. 461. 



