33 
the investigations would be directed to problems particularly relevant to 
diseases of the human, and all the research would provide basic biomedical 
informati,on important to problems of human health. 
The regional centers would be appropriately distributed geographically 
throughout the continental United States in areas whei-e climatic conditions 
were acceptable. The centers would provide good care for animals, working 
space and facilities for qualified research scientists from areas other than 
the local region, and facilities generally net within the scope of the usual 
research grant. The centers would not constitute a resource for supplying 
monkeys to all researchers in the United States, from time to time they would 
provide a limited number of animals for special research purposes co qualified 
investigators at qualified institutions. 
The national center (National Center for Primate Biology) was to differ from 
the others in that it would focus on the study of the subhuman primate as it- 
self an object of study (just as man is an object of study for his own sake), 
in comparative studies on different species of primates and on investigations 
to improve the breeding, handling, maintenance, raising, and nutrition of 
primates. V This center was particularly intended to extend the utility of 
primates as experimental animals in biomedical research. The national center, 
like the regional centers, would provide space for visiting scientists from 
other areas , and would cooperate appropriately with the other centers and with 
qualified institutions. 
Bo Testimony on status of the centers and on program developmentX ^^ 
At successive annual congressional hearings the current status, or stage of 
development, of the program and of the individual centers was reported to the 
subcommittees. The first indication of NHI interest in primate research and 
in comparative cardiovascular research was indicated at the Fiscal Year 1959 
House Hearings. At the Fiscal Year 1959 Senate Hearings^/ the subcommittee was 
told that the NHI was seriously studying the formation of a "colony of primates, 
of apes and monkeys, a population which can be controlled, in a facility at 
which studies can be made and to which scientists from all over the world can 
come to carry out investigations." Dr. K, F« Meyer's earliest visit to "a 
similar colony ... in the Crimea" was mentioned. In the record was the NHI 
proposal for the "Establishment of a Primate Colony for Research Related to 
Atherosclerosis, Hypertension and other Cardiovascular Diseases." In this 
way began the legislative moves that led to the Regional Primate Research 
Centers Program. 
V Primate Animal Husbandry 
6^/ Senate and House appropriations subcommittee hearings take place within 
the six months preceding the beginning of a particular fiscal year, which 
starts July 1. Usually the House subcommittee hearings take place prior to 
the Senate. 
