Duties of the State in relation to the nation's food supply : research on nutritional problems / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955.
Date:
[1927?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Duties of the State in relation to the nation's food supply : research on nutritional problems / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Medical Research Council has always been ready to support work on nutritional problems to the limit of its meagre resources. Unfortunately its limited income is not the only drawback to rapid progress in this part of its work, for the field of workers upon which it can draw is very small. Work of this type does not attract young men, and even those who have found themselves in this field have often arrived there by accident. There are many reasons for the lack of popularity of this kind of investigation, but probably the greatest of these is the spirit of scepticism and even hostility which has sur¬ rounded the subject of feeding, especially as it concerns vitamins. Many of the established physiologists and patho¬ logists of this country have not only failed to see the scientific and practical significance of the new dietetics, but have been sceptical and often even hostile as to the existence of these substances. The popularity of the sub¬ ject among the general population and the uncritical way in which vitamins have been discussed have only made the atmosphere which surrounds nutritional investigation worse. It is possible to foresee the end of this period of un¬ popularity, as even the scientist writh the longest latent period cannot fail to be aroused by recent work on the antirachitic vitamin and its pliotosynthetic production by the action of ultra-violet radiations on ergosterol. These recently discovered facts must tend also to focus the atten¬ tion on particular problems and prevent the loose thinking and talking that is so widespread in matters dietetic. The facilities for nutritional investigation, or at least financial facilities, have been recently greatly extended by the forma¬ tion of the Empire Marketing Board. The liaison between this body and the Medical Research Council is to be highly commended, and it is to be hoped that attention will not only be given to technical problems connected with storage and transmission of food, but that an eye will be given to the more academic problems of diet which form the funda¬ mental basis for all future advances in knowledge as to the relation of feeding and health. Interwoven with the advances in knowledge of nutrition is the problem of animal feeding, attention to which is being given by the Board of Agriculture, whose financial resources as compared with those of the Medical Research Council are very great. Speaking as one whose time has been largely occupied in investigating problems which are certainly as important from an agricultural as from the human aspect, I have a strong feeling that the inter¬ relationship between nutritional research as carried on in the university laboratories of this country not primarily devoted to agriculture and that of the Board of Agricul¬ ture is not so close as it ought to be. On the whole, so far as matters of research in nutritional problems are concerned, it is probably safe to say that the official machinery of this country is well established and