Evening star., 1953-03-11
By John McKeIwoy

py JOHH WSNSIWOy
In a collection of red bricl
buildings in the gentle hills o1
Bethesda, men in starched, loose
white coats are hunting for the
facts of life.
The hunt is tedious. It in
wolves money, high-priced brains
test-tubes, mice and monkeys
and a Peruvian toad.
To keep the hunt going, mer
with an Unsuitable curiosity are
needed. Some work in stuffy
smelly and dusty laboratories
Others keep their workshops
like a neat kitchen.
These men are trying to find
out why the deadly cancer cell
eats away and why some hearts
give up too early. And others are
wondering why some people
can't be comfortable because
they're never positive they
turned the stove off.
The red brick buildings make
up the United States Public
Health Services National Insti-
tutes of Health-the largest va
ried research center in the world
Each day the Institutes are al
work turning up tough, elusive
facts which, pieced together with
other facts, are gradually form
ing a sign post. The sign post
will someday point the way to a
cure for cancer, heart, mental
and the gamut of other dis
eases.
The facts are hard to find
The search often involves the
secret of life itself.
Runaway Cells.
At the National Cancer InStiA
tute, research scientists are peer
ing at the inSides of cells-baSic
unit of animal and plant life
The normal cell will split a num-
ber of times forming skin and
bones; maybe an artery or two
The normal cell knows when to
stop. The cancer cell does not
A cancer cell, described by
some to be the most efficient cell
of all, just keeps growing. So
scientists. in one attack on can
Ger, are trying to find some It'd
bit of information about the CUTS
of the cell gone wrong.
Cell work at the Cancer InSti-
tute is only a small segment OF
operations at the Institutes
Other brick buildings house the
ARCHAEOLOGICAL Institute, Insti-
tute of Arthritis and Metabolic
DieaseS. Institute of Dental Re-
search, Institute of Mental
Health, Institute Of Neurological
Diseases and Blindness and the
Division of Research Grants.
The buildings are just off the
Rockville pike, across from the
white marble shaft of the Naval
Medical Center, and about 10
miles from downtown Washing
ton.
The Public Health Service
traces its medical research arm
back IS years. when DR.. Joseph
A. Kinyoun set up a one-room
laboratory of Hygiene on Staten
Island. 1t was DR.. Kinyoun who
discovered cholera was arriving
along with immigrants to this
country.
Established by Congress.
But outside of the Cancer In
stitute, established in 1887, the
National Institutes of Health
began cropping up between 1916
and 1850. Each has been estab-
lished by an act of Congress. Ap-
preparations to each Of the inSti-
tuteS in 1858 were: Heart, $12
million; Cancer, $18 million;
Mental Health, $40 million;
Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases
SO million: ARCHAEOLOGICAL. So
million; Neurology and Blindness
81 million, and Dental Research
$691.154
Standing to the west of the
Institutes is their proudest pos
session-the mammoth $50 mil
lion Clinical Center. Here, in
spring. will come the first patient
to take over one of 500 beds
The building, IA stories high and
resembling a fancy apartment
house. soon will afford the long