Medical Research in Great Britain

840 NATURE MAy 20, 1939, VOL. 143 or three years old), small fields with a considerable To judge by the data at our disposal, the Sedov quantity of hummocky ice prevailing. In the is in the belt of hummocky ice situated between region of the North Pole, old comparatively level the main mass of Arctic ice and the ice carried fields were the most common. At least a year or comparatively recently into the central basin from more is necessary for the Sedov ice to be trans the seas of the Soviet Arctic. This would explain formed into fields of this kind. the constant movement and jamming of the ice When flying from Franz Josef Land to the observed by the Sedov expedition. North Pole, the Soviet airmen first saw a belt of Finally, it is possible that the belt of hummocked comparatively young ice. This was followed near ice stretches along the trough of low pressure lat. 86° N. by a peculiar belt of hummocky or created by the inrush of masses of Atlantic air jagged ice, the origin of which has not been into the Arctic. This is all the more probable since sufficiently studied. Level fields of old ice stretched the passage of this air is usually accompanied by beyond this belt to the Pole itself. powerful winds. Medical Research in Great Britain fOR those who desire to obtain some conception the Institute to Mill Hill has involved reconsidera of the progress of medical research in Great tion of the proposed memorial to the late Sir Britain, no better means can be suggested than a Walter Fletcher. The original intention was to perusal of the latest annual report of the Medical apply the balance of the fund, after providing the Research Council*. Subjects to which the Council personal memorial, towards a new laboratory for wishes to direct special attention are reviewed in research on nutrition at Mill Hill. With the the introduction ; the remainder of the report transference of the Institute, this laboratory, falls naturally into several sections describing work instead of being the chief building on the site, will carried out for different Government Departments, occupy only a relatively subordinate position. It at the National Institute for Medical Research has been decided, therefore, with the agreement (including the Department ofBiological Standards), of the subscribers to the fund, to devote it to the by members of the Council's external scientific provision of a hall for meetings and lectures as an staff, and in clinical research units and in hospitals addition to the new Institute. The Council will and other institutions by investigators aided by meet the whole cost of the nutrition laboratory. grants. The Council also awards research fellow The Council points out that, during the past ships in tropical medicine, Rockefeller medical twenty-five years, since the Medical Research fellowships and Dorothy Temple Cross research Committee was first set up, there has been a great fellowships in tuberculosis. During the year, Prof. increase in knowledge of the body in health and A. J. Clark and Sir John Ledingham retired from disease, greater even than that of the previous the Council and Prof. C. R. Harington and Prof. twenty-five years. This new knowledge has had W. W. C. Topley were appointed to succeed them. two influences which, in their effect on medical The report mentions that a beginning has been practice, are often opposed to each other. In the made with the work of construction of the new first place it has resulted in a great improvement National Institute for Medical Research at Mill in methods of diagnosis and treatment of disease, Hill, to which reference was made in last year's which has involved a vast increase in medical report. At least two years, however, will be services. Many patients suffering from diseases required for completion. The new Institute will which, twenty-five years ago, were incurable and provide accommodation for the central laboratory uncontrollable can now be restored to health and under the national scheme for research in chemo well-being. At the same time new knowledge of therapy, of which an account was also given last curative treatment may in itself also bring about year. At present, research work is being gradually reduction in incidence of disease ; for example, developed by selected investigators at different the more rapid and effective cure of gonorrhma by centres, the Council having assumed responsibility drugs of the sulphanilamide group should result in for supporting the chemical as well as the biological a reduction in its incidence by reducing the spread investigations : previously the former were sup of the infection. Recent results also give hope that ported by the Department of Scientific and these drugs may lead to reduction of the number Industrial Research. The policy of transferring of cases of middle ear disease, which is responsible • Committee of the Privy Council for Medical Researeh. Report of for a large proportion of the cases of disabling the Medical Research Council for the Year 1937-38. (Cmd. 5939.) Pp. 221. (London : H.M. Stationery Office, 1939.) S.. 6d. net. deafness in Great Britain. ©1939 Nature Publishing Group No. 3629, MAY 20, 1939 NATURE 841 On the other hand, medical research has brought part of the work helped by the Council by means another kind of knowledge which, properly used, of personal and expenses grants, the initiative in leads directly to the prevention and elimination of choice of subject and method of investigation lies disease. The effect on medical practice is clearly with the head of the laboratory in respect of some opposed to the first-mentioned effect, since, by individual worker, or with the worker himself. eliminating disease, it tends to reduce the needs The Council considers that at the present time there for curative aids. The report points out that there is a relatively great dearth of work in clinical is often great delay in bringing about the applica science and in experimental pathology, so that tion of new discoveries to preventive ends. Fresh it is offering scholarships and fellowships to means of curative treatment, on the other hand, attract young investigators into these particular are generally applied within a short period of their fields of inquiry. discovery. This delay is considered to be due to An important duty of the Council is to help the fact that there is no means of educating the Government departments confronted with immedi public in the established advances in preventive ate problems of health and disease in the course medicine. It is responsible for much unnecessary of their work. The report describes briefly some suffering. The report illustrates this point by of the main investigations now being made. reference to the prevention of diphtheria and to Important research on nutrition in the Colonial the value of improved nutrition. Where preventive Empire has been carried out in association with inoculation with diphtheria toxoid has been the Colonial Office. In Nyasaland, the dietetic and generally adopted, diphtheria as a clinical entity nutritional conditions of the people are being has practically disappeared: yet in 1937 there accurately assessed and related to other surveys were more than 61,000 cases in England and of the agricultural and social conditions. It is Wales, with almost 3,000 deaths. The report urges hoped thereby to determine methods of producing parents to demand this prophylactic inoculation those agricultural products which will cause a for their children, and considers that there is no great improvement in the physical condition of doubt that its general adoption would lead to the the population. It is also hoped that this survey virtual disappearance of the disease from Great may form a model for many similar studies else Britain. where in the Colonial territories. Other investiga The need for improved nutrition has been tions made for Government departments relate to discussed in previous reports, but the adop the nature and causes of chronic lung disease in tion of modern teaching in the subject is still coal miners, and to the dangers to health which depressingly slow: a much greater consumption may follow the use of certain organic substances of milk and other dairy products, of eggs, vege as solvents in industry. Research has been made tables and fruit and of fat fish at the expense of into the best methods of ridding houses of the bread, biscuits, sugar and sweets, will improve the bed-bug; it is hoped by this work to discover new physique of the people, reduce the amount of insecticides for the purpose which are rapid in dental decay and greatly raise the standard of action, safe and cheap ; good results have already health. An increased consumption of the 'pro been reported from fumigation with heavy naphtha. tective' foods would also be of great economic The report describes results obtained in the value to the country. treatment of cancer of the mouth, tongue, pharynx The Council is sometimes asked what is its and larynx by radium beam therapy; most of policy in promoting research : whether it favours the patients have been in an advanced and research on disease itself rather than on more inoperable stage of cancer, but the results appear academic problems of physiology and biochemistry. to compare favourably with those to be expected The general answer is that it welcomes both kinds from surgery. Of even greater importance than of investigation. Promotion of specific research by the actual therapeutic results are the new technical the Council is usually done by appointment of methods which have been elaborated as the result individuals to its permanent staff, the choice of close co-operation between physicists and depending on the subject which seems to require clinicians : they are already being widely used as special attention and the merits of the person models to be followed in researches in radiotherapy chosen.

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