The choice of a career. 9, Medical research as a career / by Sir Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1937?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The choice of a career. 9, Medical research as a career / by Sir Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/4 (page 91)
    THE CHOICE OF A CAREER. f ■' 'i v'T 8 (9) MEDICAL RESEARCH AS % CAREER. By Sir Edward Mellanby, K.C.B., M.D., P.R.C.P., F.R.S. Secretary of the Medical Research Council. Those engaged in medical research must form such a small fraction of the medically qualified that the writer wonders whether an article on the subject can have much general interest. If the number were doubled this fraction would still be small and, unless medical science undergoes an expansion at present unforeseen, or unless there is a sudden ingress of exceptionally able students into research, there is probably not room even for this development. It is of course true that in recent years there has been a great increase throughout the country of laboratories for the study of clinical pathology, and that these laboratories ought to, and do, form centres for medical investigation; even so, their numbers and the opportunities they afford for research are limited, and they will probably never absorb much larger numbers of medical men. It is undoubted, however, that the present difficulty experienced in filling these laboratory posts indicates a real shortage of suitable men. There is, moreover, a great dearth of medical scientists of the highest standard in all countries and in all branches of the science, and no one with the proper equipment need fear any difficulty in obtaining an excellent position and a satisfactory living in medical research. If, therefore, any man of the right type, of good ability, with the instinct for discovery, wishes to enter the field, he can do so with assurance. It will be asked—what is the right type of man ? This of course involves two considerations : one, his character and ability, the other, his training. Up to a point, the greater his ability for research, the less important is the training. It will usually be found that the successful investigator is a man of character with a high standard of behaviour, hard working, intellectually honest, and critical, especially of himself. If, added to these qualities, he is a man with a natural instinct and desire to add to knowledge by finding the causes of things, he is the man who will probably succeed in medical research. As regards the kind of training which best fits a man for