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ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGISTS
188
Special
-
Articles
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN INDIA LAST winter Prof. A. V. HILL, sc D, MP, secretary of the Royal Society, visited India to discuss and advise The on scientific, technical, and research problems. Government of India has now published his report. He proposes that an Indian Scientific Office should be set up in London with specialists in agriculture, defence, engineering, industry, and medicine. Representative Indian scientists should be attached to the British Commonwealth Scientific Office in Washington, and young Indian teachers, research-workers, and members of technical staffs must be given facilities for adv.anced’study abroad, especially in Britain. In medical colleges full-time teachers and researchworkers are essential in all subjects : staff, buildings, equipment, and salaries should be increased. An AllIndia Medical Centre should be established in Delhi where selected students, preferably graduates in other subjects, should be trained, receiving scholarships where necessary. The centre must be free from racial, religious, political, or provincial bias, since it is to provide the best type of teacher and research-worker, and thereby provide a high type of doctor throughout India. There should be a special hospital for the,clinical study of malaria. Existing research institutes should now be brought into closer touch with medical colleges. Statistics on the population of India require more accurate data and more detailed analysis, to guide the future direction of national development. The statistical work could be entrusted to the Expert Committee on Population. The great national resources of India are also inadequately known, and a Research Board on Surveys and Natural Resources should be set up. Agricultural research requires extension, particularly by trials on a large scale. All these proposals depend on an increase in trained workers, in equipment, and in expenditure. Funds must be found and plans for training developed in detail and put into practice as soon as possible. The headquarters staff-assisting the Director of Scientific and Industrial Research in India is too small and quite inadequate for the work of the immediate future. A free post-war distribution to universities of surplus government scientific and medical equipment and machine tools would assist the universities at small cost, without the disturbance of existing essential trades which follows public sales. A proper scientific organisation of research for the Fighting Services is essential not only for the present war, but for the future, when a self-governing India must maintain security from aggression. A Services Medical and Personnel Committee should be set up as a joint committee of the War Research and Medical Research Boards. There should be a Central Organisation for Scientific Research, under a minister without ordinary departmental duties. This should have six boards-for medical research, agricultural research, industrial research, surveys and natural resources, engineering research, and war research. Each board would have a director as secretary and principal administrative officer, who would be ex officio a member of the other five boards. The members of the boards would be research scientists, and not more than an equal number of professionals. Each board would appoint committees whose chairmen would be encouraged to take initiative : joint committees would be appointed for special subjects. There would also be a Research Grants Committee and a Research Studentships Committee, set up by the six boards jointly.’ Research should be brought into a single organisation and existing government research institutes transferred, perhaps gradually, from their present departments to the Central Organisation. An Indian Central Register for Scientific and Technical
Personnel should be constructed, and the pay and status of scientific workers in government service should be raised to a level comparable with that of workers in universities and industry. India requires a central scientific academy of the same type as the Royal Society of London. The body best suited for this purpose is the National Institute of Sciences of India. The Government of India should assist the specialist scientific societies in various ways
without diminishing their independence. As scientific research in universities is the basis of scientific progress, a national policy with regard to grants to universities is necessary ; medicine, biology, and geology particularly need development. Research, however, should not solely depend on government support, but should have independent resources and an independent existence. Private benefactions endowing scholarships; studentships, and research fellowships are urgently needed.
ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGISTS as 250 members and guests attended some of sessions of the annual meeting held at the WestDr. ERIC minster Hospital on Jan. 25 and 26.
As many
the
was elected president and gave address entitled Thoughts on the Future of Clinical Pathology. Sir Lionel Whitby and Dr. Magnus Haines were elected to the council. At the scientific meetings, at which Dr. HAINES took the chair, the communications included a paper by Dr. N. F. MACLAGAN describing the thymol turbidity test as an indicator of hepatic dysfunction, with results mainly positive in cases of infective hepatitis and cirrhosis and negative in cases of obstructive jaundice. Dr. J. R. O’BRIEN showed slides’of very early microscopic lesions of tuberculous endometritis ; such lesions; he had found, were especially common in sterile women. Sir ALEXANDER FLEMING demonstrated methods of estimating penicillin in exudates and blood, and methods of assay. Dr. F. W. GuNz reported 40 cases of intra, medullary transfusion in infants, which he thought was the most suitable means of administering most parenteral fluids, particularly saline and plasma, but was unsuitable for blood. Dr. R. R. RACE, speaking on the incomplete Rh antibody, was greeted by several speakers who did not approve of the term " incomplete " antibody and others who objected to the use of " big A " and " little a in the terminology of antibodies. Mr. N. G. HEATLEY, PH D, spoke to a colour film of laboratory methods used in penicillin work at the School of Pathology at Oxford, and in subsequent discussion Dr. E. S. DUTHIE proved that the action of penicillin was both bactericidal and bacteriolytic. He had also found that good results can be obtained in.vitro with sulphonamide and penicillin in association. The meeting ended with a lively discussion, opened by Dr. S. C. DYKE, on the dosage of liver extracts in the treatment of pernicious anaemia. A plea was put forward that the council of the association should make a further attempt to have all liver preparations standardised on a unit system. At the annual dinner the - guests included ViceAdmiral SHELDON DUDLEY, FRS, who spoke on pathology in the Navy and favoured part-time specialisation. He suggested that the bed-bug should be adopted as the badge of the association, since it was both clinical and pathological. Sir ALEXANDER FLEMING emphasised the importance of maintaining a clinical interest when doing hospital pathology, and Prof. S. A. SARKISOV conveyed greetings from Soviet pathologists. Finally, Major B. B. WELLS, biochemist to the Mayo Clinic,- described the growth of clinical pathology in the USA, demonstrating how closely the problems besetting English pathologists
WORDLEY, of Plymouth,
an
’
"
are
duplicated there.
NATIONAL SCHEME To PREVENT BLINDNESS.—The National ’Institute for the Blind has opened a campaign this year to raise a large central fund to establish ophthalmic research centres in London, Oxford, Manchester, and Leeds for the prevention of blindness. It is intended to attach the centres to universities with hospital facilities. During the past year £100,000 has been raised, mostly from industry, as the result of the Oxford University ophthalmic appeal, and the research institute is in active operation and is to be extended. Many urgent research problems await solution, including the value of remedial exercises in defective vision, especially in children, the relation between eyesight and nutrition, and the effects of many industrial processes and of lighting. Following his work for the Oxford University Foundation, Sir James Marchant has been invited by the National Institute for the Blind to promote their campaign and communications should be sent to him at Lenthay Lodge, Sherborne, Dorset.
Special
-
Articles
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN INDIA LAST winter Prof. A. V. HILL, sc D, MP, secretary of the Royal Society, visited India to discuss and advise The on scientific, technical, and research problems. Government of India has now published his report. He proposes that an Indian Scientific Office should be set up in London with specialists in agriculture, defence, engineering, industry, and medicine. Representative Indian scientists should be attached to the British Commonwealth Scientific Office in Washington, and young Indian teachers, research-workers, and members of technical staffs must be given facilities for adv.anced’study abroad, especially in Britain. In medical colleges full-time teachers and researchworkers are essential in all subjects : staff, buildings, equipment, and salaries should be increased. An AllIndia Medical Centre should be established in Delhi where selected students, preferably graduates in other subjects, should be trained, receiving scholarships where necessary. The centre must be free from racial, religious, political, or provincial bias, since it is to provide the best type of teacher and research-worker, and thereby provide a high type of doctor throughout India. There should be a special hospital for the,clinical study of malaria. Existing research institutes should now be brought into closer touch with medical colleges. Statistics on the population of India require more accurate data and more detailed analysis, to guide the future direction of national development. The statistical work could be entrusted to the Expert Committee on Population. The great national resources of India are also inadequately known, and a Research Board on Surveys and Natural Resources should be set up. Agricultural research requires extension, particularly by trials on a large scale. All these proposals depend on an increase in trained workers, in equipment, and in expenditure. Funds must be found and plans for training developed in detail and put into practice as soon as possible. The headquarters staff-assisting the Director of Scientific and Industrial Research in India is too small and quite inadequate for the work of the immediate future. A free post-war distribution to universities of surplus government scientific and medical equipment and machine tools would assist the universities at small cost, without the disturbance of existing essential trades which follows public sales. A proper scientific organisation of research for the Fighting Services is essential not only for the present war, but for the future, when a self-governing India must maintain security from aggression. A Services Medical and Personnel Committee should be set up as a joint committee of the War Research and Medical Research Boards. There should be a Central Organisation for Scientific Research, under a minister without ordinary departmental duties. This should have six boards-for medical research, agricultural research, industrial research, surveys and natural resources, engineering research, and war research. Each board would have a director as secretary and principal administrative officer, who would be ex officio a member of the other five boards. The members of the boards would be research scientists, and not more than an equal number of professionals. Each board would appoint committees whose chairmen would be encouraged to take initiative : joint committees would be appointed for special subjects. There would also be a Research Grants Committee and a Research Studentships Committee, set up by the six boards jointly.’ Research should be brought into a single organisation and existing government research institutes transferred, perhaps gradually, from their present departments to the Central Organisation. An Indian Central Register for Scientific and Technical
Personnel should be constructed, and the pay and status of scientific workers in government service should be raised to a level comparable with that of workers in universities and industry. India requires a central scientific academy of the same type as the Royal Society of London. The body best suited for this purpose is the National Institute of Sciences of India. The Government of India should assist the specialist scientific societies in various ways
without diminishing their independence. As scientific research in universities is the basis of scientific progress, a national policy with regard to grants to universities is necessary ; medicine, biology, and geology particularly need development. Research, however, should not solely depend on government support, but should have independent resources and an independent existence. Private benefactions endowing scholarships; studentships, and research fellowships are urgently needed.
ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGISTS as 250 members and guests attended some of sessions of the annual meeting held at the WestDr. ERIC minster Hospital on Jan. 25 and 26.
As many
the
was elected president and gave address entitled Thoughts on the Future of Clinical Pathology. Sir Lionel Whitby and Dr. Magnus Haines were elected to the council. At the scientific meetings, at which Dr. HAINES took the chair, the communications included a paper by Dr. N. F. MACLAGAN describing the thymol turbidity test as an indicator of hepatic dysfunction, with results mainly positive in cases of infective hepatitis and cirrhosis and negative in cases of obstructive jaundice. Dr. J. R. O’BRIEN showed slides’of very early microscopic lesions of tuberculous endometritis ; such lesions; he had found, were especially common in sterile women. Sir ALEXANDER FLEMING demonstrated methods of estimating penicillin in exudates and blood, and methods of assay. Dr. F. W. GuNz reported 40 cases of intra, medullary transfusion in infants, which he thought was the most suitable means of administering most parenteral fluids, particularly saline and plasma, but was unsuitable for blood. Dr. R. R. RACE, speaking on the incomplete Rh antibody, was greeted by several speakers who did not approve of the term " incomplete " antibody and others who objected to the use of " big A " and " little a in the terminology of antibodies. Mr. N. G. HEATLEY, PH D, spoke to a colour film of laboratory methods used in penicillin work at the School of Pathology at Oxford, and in subsequent discussion Dr. E. S. DUTHIE proved that the action of penicillin was both bactericidal and bacteriolytic. He had also found that good results can be obtained in.vitro with sulphonamide and penicillin in association. The meeting ended with a lively discussion, opened by Dr. S. C. DYKE, on the dosage of liver extracts in the treatment of pernicious anaemia. A plea was put forward that the council of the association should make a further attempt to have all liver preparations standardised on a unit system. At the annual dinner the - guests included ViceAdmiral SHELDON DUDLEY, FRS, who spoke on pathology in the Navy and favoured part-time specialisation. He suggested that the bed-bug should be adopted as the badge of the association, since it was both clinical and pathological. Sir ALEXANDER FLEMING emphasised the importance of maintaining a clinical interest when doing hospital pathology, and Prof. S. A. SARKISOV conveyed greetings from Soviet pathologists. Finally, Major B. B. WELLS, biochemist to the Mayo Clinic,- described the growth of clinical pathology in the USA, demonstrating how closely the problems besetting English pathologists
WORDLEY, of Plymouth,
an
’
"
are
duplicated there.
NATIONAL SCHEME To PREVENT BLINDNESS.—The National ’Institute for the Blind has opened a campaign this year to raise a large central fund to establish ophthalmic research centres in London, Oxford, Manchester, and Leeds for the prevention of blindness. It is intended to attach the centres to universities with hospital facilities. During the past year £100,000 has been raised, mostly from industry, as the result of the Oxford University ophthalmic appeal, and the research institute is in active operation and is to be extended. Many urgent research problems await solution, including the value of remedial exercises in defective vision, especially in children, the relation between eyesight and nutrition, and the effects of many industrial processes and of lighting. Following his work for the Oxford University Foundation, Sir James Marchant has been invited by the National Institute for the Blind to promote their campaign and communications should be sent to him at Lenthay Lodge, Sherborne, Dorset.