Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-20
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

the National Institute of Healtl
promises to make Washington
Il world center of medical research
The recent passage of the bill
introduced by Senator Joseph E. Rams
dell of Louisiana, is being hailed b!
physicians the country over as a steI
of far-reaching significance in the eter
nal struggle with sickness and death.
Medical science during the past 81
years has made in one sense enormou.
progress. 1t has discovered specific ano
almost infallible remedies for some o.
the most dreaded human diseases, with
the result that nobody dies of them any
longer except in districts where medica
resources are not available. The So
called child diseases" which used to
be accepted as a matter of course and
took a heavy toll of life, seem on the
point of being eliminated. Such
scourgeS as yellow fever are at the van
ishing point. The infant mortality rate
has been cut in half. The average span
of life has been increased to a senSa-
tional extent. All this has been accom-
plished by applying the methods OF
modern science to medical problems.
Another Side in Background.
Physicians like to boast of these ad-
vanceS-and with good reason. This is
the side of the shield held up most
frequently to the public. But there is
another side which needs to be consid-
cred in the background of the new Ma
tional Institute of Health.
Actually. the specifics are few-la-
mentally few. Death still takes its
hundreds of thousands while physicians
stand helpless by the bedsides with very
little to offer the patients. They can
only "let nature take its course" as
sisting wherever possible to recupera-
tive powers of the individual. Medical
science has made comparatively few in
roads into the territory of the eternal
enemy. These seem important because
they are the first signs Of eventual vic
tory, the beginning of the turning of
the tide Of battle. An almost infinitely
great extent of scientific territory re-
mains unconquered. The medical Scien-
fist shares, perhaps more than any other
research worker. the sentiments of Sir
Isaac Newton. He is like a child pick
ing up pebbles here and there on the
beach. Before him beats the great,
mysterious, unconquered ocean. Death,
hiding in the impenetrable fog, laughs
ut him and his efforts.
Organized Medical Research.
Is thing of the very recent past, be-
institutions as the Rockefeller Founda-
ton and the graduate departments of
such universities as Johns Hopkins in
Baltimore. The number of research
workers is pitiably small, due in large
part to the inadequacy of the resources
available for their support. And, 1t is
generally admitted, only through pure,
laborious. uncolorful scientific research
can medical science be advanced in the
future. Most of the miracles" and the
accidents already have happened.
The individual physician, however
able he may be, is not in a, position to
contribute much. His function is to
put into practice the science of medicine
as it is. He has neither the time, the
energy, the money, the resources, nor
in most cases the technical equipment
for research work. Furthermore, the
status of the science is such that the
individual working alone can accom-
plish little. Medical research has
reached the stage where 1t can func-
ton only as a cooperative enterprise.
The problems are too complicated to be
solved by any one man. They demand
the combined efforts of the biophysic-
list, the biochemist, the physiologist and
a score of others, each contributing a
little toward the desired result.
In Better Position.
The medical schools and universities
are In a somewhat more favorable posi-
ton. Research is somewhat of a side
line voluntary activity on the part of
idealistic and overworked professors.
Nor is research, except in a limited de-
gress, the function of State and Ma
tional health services which are de-
signed as regulatory and executive agen-
cies This leaves actual research in
the hands of the great foundations, and
these are so few that they can take
advantage of only the most pressing of
the opportunities.
Now comes the United States Gov
eminent. The old Hygienic Laboratory
of the Public Health Service, with its
heroic tradition Of devotion and self
lesSneSs, acquired largely in activities
the NUCLEUS of great Federal medical
research agency. The antiquated, in
adequate quarters, hidden under the
shadow of the Naval Hospital, battle
ground of some of the most colorful
struggles against the invisible hordes of
disease and death that the world has
known, are to be replaced with modern,
search is to be recognized, primary
function.
Past GIamOrous.
1t is difficult to pass lightly over the
past of the Hygienic Laboratory. The
day may be approaching rapidly when
Schoolboys will learn Of the heroic deeds
of the men and women who have
worked and died there as they now
learn of the deeds of John Paul Jones
and Ethan Allen. This past is a CLAM
orous page in American history. WASH
ington hardly can have forgotten so
seen the story of the parrot fever in
vestigation last Winter, when this mys-
FERROUS tropical disease seemed to have
fastened its hold on the country, and
when, stricken right and left as the
epidemic swept through the building,
the staff fought on to an eventual VIC
tory over an invisible foe which had
emerged from that dark border between
the organic and inorganic. the living
end the dead.
1t can hardly be forgotten how as
worker after worker dropped in the
fight, the director, DR.. George w. Nc
Coy, ordered the others away from the
position of greatest danger, caring for
the infected birds, and took up the
work himself. Here, IL anywhere, was
a deed deserving the Congressional
Medal of Honor. And one after the
~u-Aar. after having been brought to the
edge of the grave by the disease, the
stricken workers staggered back to their
places in the line of battle. This is
merely one of many such incidents
which will provide the tradition of the
new National Institute of Health. Nc
army ever took the field with a more
heroic inspiration for following a more
blood drenched flag in the charge
against the enemy.
Work Drab, COIOrIess.
Much of the work necessarily will bt
drab and colorless. Such is always the
case with the work of an army in the
field. The picturesque charges which
Stir the blood of onlookers are few anc
nrnrt Eilt medical scinrace is liz