Research - discovery - achievement.

Date:
Between 1950 and 1959?
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Research - discovery - achievement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The then Director, Dr. Walter Dowson, attracted a number of enthusiastic men to work under him. The calibre of these men may be gauged from the fact that the scientific staff until the outbreak of war in 1914 never numbered more than twelve, yet no less than eight of these subsequently became Fellows of the Royal Society, two being knighted. They were H. H. Dale (Sir Henry Dale, O.M., Nobel Laureate, President of The Royal Society, 1940-45), P. P. Laidlaw (the late Sir Patrick Laidlaw, co-discoverer of the methods of immunisation against dog distemper), G. Barger (late Professor of Chemistry, Edinburgh), J. H. Burn (Professor of Pharmacology, Oxford), A. J. Ewins (Director of Research, May & Baker, Ltd.), A. T. Glenny (who retired in 1947), H. King (Chemist in the M.R.C. Laboratories), and J. Mellanby (late Professor of Physiology, Oxford). In 1906, Dr. Dale succeeded Dr. Dowson as Director, and remained there until the outbreak of the first world war when he, together with Dr. Barger and Dr. Ewins, joined the research team then being built up by the Medical Research Committee (now the Medical Research Council). At about the same time, Dr. Laidlaw accepted the position of Professor of Pathology at Guy's Hospital. Shortly before this, it had been decided to enlarge the scope of the Laboratories to cover the veterinary field. Until 1912, the veterinary staff was engaged only in the supervision of the horses necessary for the production of sera and vaccines for human use, but in that year the first Veterinary Superintendent, Mr. J. B. Buxton, then lecturer in Veterinary Hygiene, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, was appointed. The war provided fresh problems. Dr. R. A. O'Brien, successor to Dr. Dale, was faced with the necessity of increasing the pro- duction of serological products. Research had to be restricted but, with the reduced scientific staff, this was inevitable in any case. With the armistice came the task of re-establishing the research side. Of the original team few remained. Dr. Mellanby was lecturer in physiology at St. Thomas's Hospital, J. H. Burn was studying medicine at Oxford and Dr. King was shortly to leave for the Medical Research Council.