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INTRODUCTION 
A, The Purpose of this Report 
The purpose of this report is to bring together in one document a record of 
events that transpired in the creation of a definitive program of regional 
primate research centers. The report is intended as a historical statement 
and reference document relative to the development of the concepts, policies, 
procedures, and limitations of this program. 
B. Summary Statement 
Events of this world have no precise beginning or ending, except as they are 
arbitrarily designated for purposes of convenience. The more precisely one 
attempts to identify such points in time, tke more difficult it becomes to do so. 
So it is with the Regional Primate Research Centers Program. For purposes of 
this report, this program is considered to have begun at the time the Director 
of the National Heart Institute (NHI) and the National Advisory Heart Counci 11/ 
agreed to initiate the efforts that ultimately brought the program into existence. 
But the development period is not over, for characteristics of the program are 
still being evolved, and the program does not yet reflect the full intent of 
its creators. 
There is something dramatic about the creation and development of a program 
such as this one. In the present case, prior to the raising of the curtain 
on the first act in February 1957, there were separate events that together 
constituted a kind of prologue. 
Important among these was the fact that several different groups expressed 
concern over the lack of long-term primate research facilities in the U. S. 
At least two NIH committees, associated with the Division of Research Grants, 
proposed the establishment of national primate colonies. These efforts were 
ineffective. 
In 1956, Dr. James Watt, NHI Director, and Dr. Ko Fo Meyer, separately visited 
the Russian primate research colony at Sukhumi on the Black Sea. The Regional 
Primate Research Centers Program began in February 1957 when the National 
Advisory Heart Council, stimulated by Dr. Watt's report of his visit, recommen- 
ded to the National Heart Institute that a committee be set up to plan for a 
single national primate research colony, of the "Woods Hole" type, to meet a 
national need. The Council recommended that the colony be planned for long- 
term cardiovascular research, and that in time it should be broadened to Include 
any other biomedical research areas. It was implicit in the Council's thinking 
that the grant or grants supporting the colony would eventually be transferred 
from the NHI to an appropriate noncategorical part of the NIHo The colony 
would be for primate research, not merely a primate supply resource. 
An initial ad hoc committee commenced the planning and laid down the foundations 
for the concept of a national colony, later called a national primate research 
station. The planning was continued by a second committee composed of several 
1/ Referred to hereafter as the Heart Council. 
