Editorial: To Support Research

PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume V · Number 2 · Winter 1962 EDITORIAL: TO SUPPORT RESEARCH We are pleased to reprint inthis issue ofperspectives an address given by Dr. Max Tishler, President ofMerck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories , on the occasion ofhis receiving the Industrial Research Medal this year. It concerns the use and effect ofpublic funds on research. I have some comments on the uses ofprivate funds for the support of university research. Although there are welcome exceptions, most industrial concerns have not paid their debt to learning by supporting free enterprise in education and research—they provide funds only for research on practical problems. Private foundations have their pet projects. A few enlightened foundations direct their spending to support basic research. Finally, the public fund-raising agencies collect substantial amounts of money for research, but only a few handle funds efficiently and are well advised in their spending. Some, such as the National Foundation and the American Cancer Society, have had a favorable impact upon medical research in the United States by seeking out creative investigators and giving them long-range support to study basic problems. Private funds are needed to complement the work done with public funds. Both government and private agencies should markedly increase unrestricted grants, which are needed to attack the bottlenecks in education and research that are known to each administrator. This would not require an increase in total spending. Some, but not all, individuals engaged in research know best how to spend the money available to them. If our universities are to be brought to their full potential for learning and discovery , we must uphold freedom of enterprise for scholars and scientists who are creative and responsible and not force them to be beggars first. D.J.I. 145 AN ANATOMY LESSON We are the embalmed men Speaking silently in The cold grey light Of the winter solstice Life's detumescence Rigored on the red wood Slabs ofunhallowed halls Buried in the necropolis Ofcrystal light Shafting o'er the leaden slates And thro' the cob-webbed panes We are the sperm and the ova Spilled in a chanceless street Extending in Time A soma whose antecedents Long were nectarine for turning worms We are the Day and the Night Passed on Copulation and the consummation The wineglass on egret stem Brass bubbling tankard The bawdy song The love and hate of flesh and blood We are the mirror Held up to the living We are the Dead Men Contending not with The white coats whose Unpropitiating fingers Wield the bloodless knife Stroking disembowelled gut Ash tray for smoking stubs We hold the caduceus Not you. We know. We are the Dead Men Recounting in the Cold ofthe winter's day The tractate of the living. StACEY B. Day , Stacey B. Day · An Anatomy Lesson Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Winter 1962 ...