afforded through this means. At the same time the United States Public Health 'Service has been granted funds for subvention of medical research and for fellowships in the medical sciences-funds which are available throughout the field of medicine. The Public Health Service has also Federal funds to be administered by the National Cancer Institute for grants-in-aid of investigations in cancer, as well as funds for the maintenance of the institute.

But in the attack on cancer, other disciplines than the medical sciences are involved, and we find that the Federal Government is already appropriating funds for research in nonmedical sciences, in which advance in knowledge may have application in the ultimate solution of the cancer problem. I refer to the Chemical Warfare Service, the National Bureau of Standards, and to other Government agencies.

This review, partial and incomplete as it may be, of the availability of Federal funds for research in areas of science which touch upon cancer, immediately brings forward the problem of coordination of the use of these Federal research funds so that completion and duplication of effort are avoided. It seems to me essential that a critical study be made of possible machinery, both in Government and outside of Government, which might be used to avoid this competition and duplication of effort. Not only should this study be made of the coordination of Federal expenditure in the field of medical research so that maximum benefit from such subvention may be derived, but the coordination should extend, if possible, to private agencies which are supporting medical research in the same fields. The coordination between the employment of private and Federal funds devoted to investigative attack on the same biological problems should be achieved by establishing a mechanism by which maximum utility of the funds and of available personnel could be secured.

I take it that because of my 7 years' experience within the National Research Council the committee here would welcome comments regarding the National Research Council and its parent body, the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences owes its origin to a congressional charter, which was approved by President Lincoln in 1863; this charter provides that "the academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report on any subject of science or art, the actual expenses of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose, but the Academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any service to the Government of the United States." Under this provision the Academy has acted, since the time of its establishment, as an official adviser of the Government on a wide variety of scientific problems. During the Civil War, the Academy, through its committees and members, dealt actively with military and naval problems of a similar type to those which pressed for solution during the World Wars. As the country began to prepare itself for World War I, President Wilson in 1916 requested the Academy to establish the National Research Council as an active agency of the Academy, to assist the Government in mobilizing the scientific resources of the country. At the end of the war, in May 1918, President Wilson issued an Executive order requesting the Academy to perpetuate the National Research Council, with broad advisory and coordinating duties which were specified in the Executive order. The Council thereupon became a cooperative organization of the scientific men of America. The membership of the Council is composed of appointed representatives of approximately 85 of the major scientific and technical societies of the country, as well as representatives of various Federal departments.

Financial support of the administrative work of the Research Council is largely derived from an endowment given to the National Academy of Sciences by the Carnegie Corp. of New York. For the financing of scientific projects undertaken and sponsored by it, the Council relies on special gifts and appropriations obtained from time to time from various sources, both private and governmental. The Council is not an institution for the maintenance of sicentific laboratories; it is largely an institution which has the facilities for furnishing scientific advice, both to Government and to other qualified organizations. The Council has served often and well as a common meeting place for scientific discussions between Federal officers and civilian scientists.

During World War II, the advisory services of the Council have been widely used by Government departments. As we are concerned here with a problem of medical research, I shall speak largely of the Council's Division of Medical Sciences. This Division was requested in May 1940 by Surgeon General Magee, of the United States Army, to give advice on medical problems of particular

significance to the armed services. This request from the Surgeon General of the Army was enthusiastically concurred in by the Surgeon General of the Navy and the Surgeon General of Public Health Service. While initially advice was sought merely in two speical medical sectors, it soon became obviously desirable to extend advice to all fields of medical science and practice. Even though Federal funds for support of the advisory services were largely lacking during the first 16 months, many committees and subcommittees were formed by the Council to supply the required professional and research advice. With the establishment of the Office of Scientific Research and Development by Executive order of President Roosevelt in June 1941, the problem of Federal financing of medical research was solved with the formation of a Committee on Medical Research as a constituent part of the Office. The committees of the Research Council were employed by the Committee on Medical Research to serve in an advisory relationship. Through the activities of the Council's committees, the program of wartime research in medicine was initiated and carried to a successful conclusion. In addition, the services of the Medical Division of the Council were used by several other Federal agencies-War Production Board, the War Food Administration, and the Office of Price Administration.

The National Research Council demonstrated during the war period its ability to secure without cost to government, other than the cost of travel, the enthusiastic services of medical scientists throughout the country. Over 400 individuals served on various advisory committees of the Division of Medical Sciences and gave unstintingly of their time and knowledge. This service initiated as a wartime activity was considered to be of such value by the medical officers of the armed services that it will be extended by contract during 1946-47 to meet the present problems of the Army and Navy medical departments. In addition, the Veterans' Adminstration has requested the services of the Division to provide the Veterans' Administration with an extension program of follow-up study on wartime casualties and of clinical research leading to betterment of care of veterans. Similarly, the air surgeon and the Division of Aviation Medicine, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy, are arranging for advisory service of the Division in the broad field of aviation medicine.

These functions of the Council's Division of Medical Sciences undertaken for Federal departments are related to the activities of the Division which pertain to civilian agencies and institutions. For many years the Division has awarded fellowships in the medical sciences from funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, and in recent years these fellowship funds have been augmented by appropriations from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. In addition, the Division has awarded grants-in-aid in sex research from funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation and in endocrine research from funds provided by the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation.

With the background of experience thus gained over 25 years, and because of the willing cooperation of medical scientists in responsibilities of the Research Council, the Division of Medical Sciences was selected, something over a year ago, to serve as adviser in research to the American Cancer Society. The arrangement between the society and the council specified that the council should appoint an advisory committee of medical scientists with such subordinate groups as needed,and should establish a central office for administrative purposes. To this end, the council established within the Division of Medical Sciences a committee on growth, with membership made up of outstanding scientists from all fields of science pertinent to the solution of the problems of growth. At its first meetings, the committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. C. P. Rhoads, of Memorial Hospital, New York City, decided upon a very wide attack upon the problem of cancer, with programs of research in certain phases of physics, chemistry, biology, botany, and clinical medicine and surgery. In order to gather competent advice for these widely spread programs of research a number of panels were formed under the main board; each panel (and there are approximately 20 in number) was constituted of a small number of the eminent scientists in the particular area of science. Recommendations from the technically informed members of the panels flow through four divisions subordinate to the main committee-physics, chemistry, biology, and clinical research.

The final evaluation of the projects for subvention by the American Cancer Society is made by the main Committee on Growth and its executive group. In

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this way allocations of the available funds in the various phases of activity looking toward advancing knowledge in the phenomenon of growth become properly weighed the one proposal against the other. During its first year of existence the Committee on Growth has held many meetings and conferences and has made many recommendations to the society for the support of research. In addition to this function the Committee on Growth has assumed responsibility for recommendation of qualified candidates for fellowships in the broad fields underlying the study of cancer. It is generally agreed that in its year of activity the Committee on Growth has made an extraordinarily good record and for the first time in America a really comprehensive program of attack upon fundamental mechanism of atypical growth has been made. A research program of approximately $800,000 has been financed for the year by the American Cancer Society.

Even before the initial meeting of the Committee on Growth, it was realized that the activities of this group should be coordinated with the undertakings of Federal agencies and of philanthropic organizations in the same field. To this end the three Surgeons General were invited to appoint liaison officers who should sit with the Committee on Growth, so that the Federal services would be informed of the program and extent of research subvention developed under the committee. Thus, the Director of the National Cancer Institute was named by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, and intimate exchange of programs and appointments has been carried out by the National Cancer Institute and the Committee on Growth. Other enterprises, planned in the future, relate to conferences on specific subjects in cooperation with philanthropic foundations.

With this mechanism set up for the transmission of professional and scientific advice from the National Research Council to the American Cancer Society, one necessarily wonders what mechanism should be established for the administration of the very large Federal fund mentioned in S. 1875. Certainly such sums as may be provided by congressional appropriation must be administered on the basis only of the best scientific advice. One would think immediately of a board or commission of outstanding scientists and lay members, appointed by the President, and of a director, chosen for his particular competence as an administrative medical scientist. Such an organization is not specified in the bill as at present drawn, for the bill provides merely for the President to call a conference of world leaders in the field of cancer research and "to take any additional action that he may consider necessary and proper."

An organization spreading broadly throughout the fields of scientific endeavor, as represented in the panels of the Research Council's Committee on Growth, would obviously be needed. Accepting such advice from competent authorities, any administrative agency set up under the bill could then use Federal funds to advantage, for the employment of skilled personnel, for the training of promising young scientists, for essential equipment for research, and for construction of such laboratories and institutes as are needed for the expanded program of research and for the proper training of young investigators. But it must be realized that advisory groups established under the bill will necessarily include almost the same personnel as now constitute the Research Council's Committee on Growth and its panels. For there are only a limited number of highly qualified scientists in this country, and the same individuals with some shuffling constitute almost all the national advisory committees. Realizing this shortage of personnel, one may predict that the Federal program of research in cancer will encounter the same difficulties as are met in other investigative undertakings at the present time: the need is for competent broadly trained scientists and this need can only be met by a thoroughgoing training program. Furthermore in any coordinated attack on cancer as contemplated under this Federal program, the essential independence of the investigator must be maintained if advance in knowledge is to be achieved. It is, I take it, unnecessary to reaffirm the contention that the world provides but few of the really great scientists; these occur only rarely in any civilization but they are responsible for uncovering the great laws of nature. So in any program of research the emphasis must be constantly upon maintenance of the liberty of the investigator and upon the slow steps forward, achieved by scientists who cannot be considered to be geniuses.

With these opportunities envisoned under the bill S. 1875, one must necessarily think of helpful coordination of its activities with those of other Federal agencies doing research within fields related to the basic problems of cancer. Similarly, its activities must, in order to provide the maximum effort, be carefully coordinated with the enterprises of private foundations and with those of the na

tional societies. The funds provided in S. 1875 should not be used in competition with other Federal funds or with private funds; rather should they be used to supplement all other existing funds devoted directly or indirectly to advance in knowledge of the problems of cancer.

With these viewpoints in mind, I venture to suggest that the mechanism of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council could possibly be used for the effectuation of a coordinated and cooperative program of research in cancer. The mechanism was successfully employed during the war in several fields of endeavor by the Army, Navy, and Public Health Service; the cooperation, for instance in the studies in malaria offers a striking example of what can be done by joint effort when departmental independencies and competitions are forgotten for the common good. I know of no other agency in the broad field of the medical sciences which occupies the unique position of the National Academy-Research Council as an adviser to Government on scientific problems and as a central body of scientific thought. Perhaps in some way the ability of the Council as an agency functioning for the scientific societies and able to mobilize the best scientific advice in the many fields involved in the study of atypical growth could be made use of in the program contemplated in S. 1875. So, in my opinion, approval must be given to the basic philosophy of the bill under discussion, with its purpose of supplying Federal funds for a broad attack upon the problem of cancer. But the bill; in its present form, lacks essential administrative machinery which must be established with wisdom so that the inoneys appropriated will be expended on the basis of the best scientific advice. This administrative machinery should not be hard to devise, but the success of the enterprise will be based upon cooperative undertakings brought about through most intelligent use of Federal and non-Federal funds in a broadly conceived effort to solve the problem of cancer.

Senator PEPPER. Dr. Simon L. Ruskin, of New York City.

STATEMENT BY DR. SIMON L. RUSKIN, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Senator PEPPER. Dr. Ruskin, have you got a copy of your statement?

Dr. RUSKIN. I have.

(Dr. Ruskin presented for the record the following statement :)

PREPARED STATEMENT BY DR. SIMON L. RUSKIN

The present efforts for an all-out attack on the cancer problem parallels remarkably the drive that led to the solution of the problem of atomic energy. While the Greeks knew about atomic forces, we were, prior to the Second World War, hardly closer to the utilization of those forces. Similarly, 2,000 years ago Galen already attributed cancer to "black bile in the tissues." Today some of our latest theories still circle around the chemistry of porphyrin compounds contained in bile and the sterols related to bile. Methylcholanthrene, which is experimentally used to induce cancer in animals, is a derivative of bile acids. At the present time, similar to the time of Galen, these substances, are considered as possible sensitizers to cancer-producing stimuli. Among the sterol compounds, the sex hormones have been suspected with good cause, as demonstrated in animal experimentation.

These theories have, however, not brought us much closer to a solution of the cancer problem. In general, cancer research has been conducted under five different angles. There is the virus approach, which has periodically been intensively studied, with at times, what appeared to be brilliant results, that were not reproducible. This still requires a great deal of basic research, the nature of which we will describe later; a second angle is the production of cancer in animals by various chemical agents, primarily of the coal tar groups; third, a study of diet, particularly the relationship of vitamins and low-caloried diets to the prevention of cancer; fourth, studies on enzymes which catalyze and regulate the metabolism of body tissue; and fifth, the chemotherapy and radiation therapy, studying the effects of various chemicals and radiation on normal and cancerous tissues.

In these five fields an enormous amount of work has been done involving virtually all of our major universities and a host of individual laboratories operating under research grants with a healthy degree of rugged individualism,

periodically cooperative through society meetings and symposia. The amount of this work when totaled, is truly impressive and the sincerity and devotion of the men working in these laboratories is almost godlike. Yet, with the best intentions these investigations proceed in all directions without direction.

The cancer problem has, in the past, been attacked as a disease with the hope that by the observation of the disease process, its cause and cure would be seen. When, however, the cancer question is looked upon as a problem of life, we are confronted with a much more fundamental set of problems dealing with the basic elements of life itself directly similar to that of atomic energy in relationship to matter. Such studies are now possible through the instruments that have been developed by atomic research as well as the collateral major instruments of science now used in chemistry and physics. Through these newer instruments we are able to study molecular relationships and forces that influence molecular ultrastructure. When we view the cancer problem from this angle, it becomes a biological question related to the nuclei of cells which carry and regulate life processes and in their structure, are indeed close to virus configurations. It also becomes a chemical question involving every branch of chemistry, including newer developments in sugar chemistry since the nucleic acid structures contain a characteristic sugar. It involves the physics of molecular rearrangements incident to chemical reactions.

All of this basic work has to be done, just as it was done for the atom project. When this is accomplished, it must be correlated with the vast amount of scattered knowledge already accumulated in hundreds of independent laboratories. Neither the biologist, nor the physician and surgeon, the chemist, or the physicist can tackle this problem single-handed. A new type of worker who will be intermediate and well-grounded in all these departments will have to be evolved, and the possibility of the close cooperation and side-by-side work of all these men and women, in many instances under one roof, will have to be provided.

New lines of experimentation other than animal, must be developed along lines as theoretic as nuclear physics. The inadequacy of carrying over conclusions arrived at from plant and animal cancer to human beings has in recent years become all too manifest. Methylcholanthrene, which will produce cancer in rats, has not yet been demonstrated to have produced it in man.

Our lines of experimentation have to be moved up into the realms of molecular structure, governing life processes. Major instruments of science now housed in isolated laboratories available only to their own workers permitting studies of electron diffraction, molecular surfaces, new electron microscopes, specialized spectroscopes, and X-ray diffraction equipment could become more familiar tools available to many now struggling manfully in basic research without them. Such instruments literally cast light on life processes and structure.

The byproducts of such investigation can, and undoubtedly will, easily transcend the cancer problem itself, great as its importance is today. All of medicine will be enriched virtually in every department as modern chemistry and physics has been by nuclear studies. An unprecedented era of health and longevity may be the fruits of this study, as peace may become the result of the atomic discoveries. This appropriation requested by the Pepper-Neely bill would make possible the first coordinated grand attack on the basic forces of life, so urgently called for in the solution of the cancer problem.

It is unnecessary to call to mind the great national loss through cancer deaths, and the Pepper-Neely bill should be considered virtually in the light of a flood. control measure, for the preservation of national life and property.

Senator PEPPER. Suppose you just tell us orally, now, in supplementation of your statement, what your general views on this subject are-what you recommend to us.

Dr. RUSKIN. To be brief, my objective is more or less to point out the type of investigation that is before us, the scope of the problem, and the difference that exists between present organized agencies and the necessary form of expansion that possibly could lead to a solution. We have throughout the country a number of well-organized cancer research projects, by men who are not only eliminent scientists but who have devoted their whole life's energies to it. We have just had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Weed, and of the wonderful work that his group has done; we know that. We also know that practically all