An Institute of Chemotherapy

Abstract

THE malaria epidemic in Ceylon in 1934-35 directed attention anew to the importance of chemotherapy, particularly in relation to malaria, and the subject received full discussion at a joint meeting of Sections B (Chemistry) and E (Geography) of the British Association at the Norwich meeting. Last July, the Royal Society decided upon a scheme for research on malaria, and, as part of it, Lieut.-Colonel J. A. Sinton was appointed for a period of five years to work at the Malariatherapy Centre at Horton, where he would be able to include chemo-therapeutic testing and experimentation in his investigations. Hitherto, little work has been done in Great Britain on this subject, in spite of the fact that the British Empire includes vast malarious areas in Africa, India and the Far East. In the British Association discussion referred to above, Colonel S. P. James stated that of the 3J million deaths annually from malaria, the great majority occur in the British Empire, and that the Empire spends £450,000 annually on quinine for combating malaria. It is now announced that Great Britain is to have an institute of chemotherapy, and at the annual dinner of the Royal Society, Mr. Neville Chamberlain stated that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had just consented to give a grant of £30,000 a year towards the establishment of such an institute. It is difficult to foresee, he said, all the possibilities of the new institute, but the fact that the grant has been made is evidence that the Government is not indifferent to the duty of one generation to carry on investigations which may benefit only the generations to come.