Report of Representative on Medical Research Council

The amount of the Government grant for the current year is £95,000 which, together with balance from last year plus donations, has enabled the Council to approve a budget of approximately £108,000 for the current year, a substantial increase on last year's expenditure. Nevertheless, requests from research committees, together with necessary administrative expenses, amounted to substantially more than this sum; and it has once again been found necessary to prune requested expenditure sigificantly, especially in respect of equipment and materials. The insistent request for more funds reflects a very healthy state of activity in all fields of the Council's activities.

The retirement of Sir Charles Hercus as Dean of the Medical School, and his replacement by Dr. E. G. Sayers has necessitated a revision in the personnel of several of the research committees. Sir Charles has, however, undertaken to remain as Chairman of the Hydatid Research Committee, which has a considerably wider sponsorship than other activities of the Council. For this work accommodation has been secured in the Air Department's buildings at Taieri Aerodrome. Four professional officers and nine others are now engaged in the project; and the appointment of a pathologist is under consideration. An ambitious programme of field and laboratory studies is under way, and very satisfactory progress appears to have been made to date.

Dr. F. A. Denz, the Council's senior toxicologist, has accepted the post of Associate Professor in Chemical Pathology in the University of Otago. This has entailed a reconstruction of the Council's Toxicological Research Committee, which has been provisionally reconstituted to cover a wider field of pathology, under a new Chairman. A revised programme of research is expected to be brought forward by this Committee shortly.

The other eleven committees are all functioning actively and successfully. About sixty papers in all have been published during the year by staff or associated workers under the Council's jurisdiction.

A proposal has been approved to establish scholarships for suitable entrants to the degree of B.Med.Sc. and M.Med.Sc. This, it is hoped, will tend to attract more promising young medical students into the research field at a later stage in their careers.

L. Bastings,

Representative of the Royal Society on the Medical Research Council.