Evening star., 1947-03-26

tThe following article Is condensation
Roa fS oss
on on t; Apprcpriations handing 'rsi the Federal
Security Agency bill. This appropriation
was one that was not cut)
ThesNational Institute of Health had
its beginning go years ago this year 1t
started in small way with the then
new science of baeteriology back in the
late 16S0s. It's growth since that time
has been gradual but steady, as the
horizons of medical research have
Widened. 1t was first housed in the
attic of building which occupied the
site of the present New House Office
Building About 1902 one laboratory
was moved to Twenty-ffth street NV.
At that time an appropriation was
made to undertake research in the dis
eases of man. and matters pertaining
to the public health. That was in 1902.
When the institute first started-when
the research work first started-it was
at the time of the development of the
new science of bacteriology in the days
of Koch and Pasteur The first di-
rector of the institute went to Europe
and studied under Koch and Pasteur
in 1885, and came back to head the
laboratory.
AS the science Of bacteriology devel-
oped, also the science of chemistry and
its application to medicine developed,
and about that time, and in the sue
ceeding years, work on the intestinal
parasites and the part they played in
human health developed gradually.
Hookworm studies were given special
attention by Charles Wardell Stiles and
~ xx,I,0 ~ f1,0 NafS IL
Institute of Health.
A division of zoology was added and
by 1920. there was division of zoology,
division of pathology and bacteriology,
q division of chemistry, and division
of pharmacology. Since that time the
newer techniques and skills kindred to
medicine have finally come to offer
greater and greater opportunities for
medical research.
For example, we have learned in the
last 10 or Is years great deal about
endocrinology. or the secretion of the
internal glands and their influence on
human biology The latest develop
ment in which we are interested is in
the use of the products of nuclear fs-
sion in medical research.
We still know very little about the
living cell. We know more about 1t
than we did 10 years ago, but we are
learning more by the use Of newer
chemical and physical methods.
Widening Medical Horizons.
& The institute has grown along with
, this increase in the widening of the
horizons of medical knowledge and the
application of kindred sciences to med
ical research work, until at the present
time We have nine divisions at the
National Institute of Health.
There is a division of infectious dis
eases, which is continuing the work Of
the science of bacteriology, including
work on viruses, about which we knew
practically nothing 20 years ago.
There Is the division of biologics con-
troll, or rather a laboratory of biologics
control We have had the authority and
responsibility for the control of the
manufacture and sale, to insure purity,
safety and potency, of biological prod
sucts since 1902, and if I may boast
again a little I may say that we, in
our Biologics Control Laboratory, have
taught the world how to safeguard bio
fear of contradiction that the biologics
tIoGuCtS pIouuCeu III CnlS country are
superior to those produced in any other
country in the world
The Division Of Physiology is an out
growth of what used to be the Division
of Pharmacology. The section on nutri-
ton is an outgrowth of work that was
begun in 1914 at the then Hygienic
Laboratory. In that work, the first
pioneer work in vitamin deficiency was
done. 1t was found out in our labora-
tory that pellagra was caused by