11 
subcoinmittee to propose recommendations and plans for the colony for pre- 
sentation to the committee at its next meeting on February 10, 1958.-1^' 
Dr. Burch reported in November to the Heart Council on his September 25th 
committee meeting. 
The subcommittee appointed by Dr. Burch consisted of Dr. Howard Curtis 
(chairman). Dr. Leon Schmidt, Dr. Harry Harlow, and Dr. Theodore Ruch. 
They visited Okatie Farm,-^ the Yerkes Laboratories, the monkey colony of 
the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness at the 
University of Puerto Rico, and the caged primate colony at the Institute for 
Medical Research, Christ Hospital, Cincinnati. The subcommittee members 
were already familiar with the Balcones Primate Laboratory of the Air Force 
at Austin, Texas, and Dr. Harry Harlow's Laboratory at the University of 
Wisconsin. The subcommittee then wrote "A Proposal for a National Primate 
Institute"(_7 ) which set forth the concepts, objectives, needed facilities, 
staff requirements, costs, and type of site for the location of the "Institute 
However, this carefully thought-out document was destined for a difficult time 
and, as written, for elimination. The members of the subcommittee were out- 
standingly competent and experienced research scientists. They were not 
government administrators whose administrative world bore down upon them with 
somewhat different semantic forces. An interplay of different approaches 
developed fully at the February 10, 1958j meeting of the full committee which 
was to have later consequences. 
The February 10th meeting(8) of the committee was devoted entirely to a dis- 
cussion of the subcommittee's document which was, as originally intended, 
considered to be a preliminary proposal subject to modification. There were 
two different ways of thinking about the development of a primate colony: 
that reflected by the words "National Primate Institute" in the subcommittee's 
proposal, which described a general primate research facility but did not 
focus upon the categorical area represented by the National Heart Institute; 
and the view presented by Dr. Watt that, if the Heart Institute and Heart 
Council were to try to bring the primate colony into being, the proposal 
must be for a primate research colony or research facility that would be 
focused primarily upon the cardiovascular research area. He emphasized that 
to propose a general non-categorical primate research facility would be to 
take it out of the hands of the interested Heart Institute and Heart Council. 
Furthermore, to designate the facility as a National Institute or even as a 
National Laboratory would confuse it semantically with existing organizations 
in a way that would be detrimental. It was suggested that the term "Primate 
13 / Reference to the minutes of this September 25 meeting and the documents 
supplied the members will provide detailed information regarding (a) the 
monkey colony in Puerto Rico (which received some support at one time from 
NIH), (b) the primate research activity in Puerto Rico of the Institute for 
Neurological Diseases and Blindness, and (c) the primate colony of the Soviet 
Union at Sukhumi. 
14/ The conditioning center for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralys 
