National Health and Medical Research¹

Abstract

THE elaborately detailed report of the Medical Research Council for the past year gives much food for thought, whether we receive it in the spirit of the tax-payer, anxious to be assured that his contribution to the national health is being worthily expended, or in the spirit of the watchman, eager only for a sign, but untroubled by detail. We all have in us something of the tax-payer and, let us hope, something more of the watchman, so let us see how these respective parts of us are catered for in the Council's report. Whether we are able to appreciate its contents or not, we, as tax-payers, have always demanded this sort of governmental report. Does it not concern the disbursement of 130,000l., or something like a halfpenny per head of the population, on the pursuit of new knowledge that is to alleviate human suffering? Unthinking lay and even medical critics might regard it as a perilous investment. Were they holders of cinema shares, they would probably accept without question a similar disbursement to the parents of a Jackie Coogan.