Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

HISTORICAL FOREWORD xiii

Historical Foreword

Often glorified and sometimes criticized, the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) has nevertheless become one of the most important,
if not the most important, biomedical research organizations in the
world. Its intramural program has included scientists who have made
major contributions; its extramural program has enabled universities
and medical schools throughout the United States to build major re­
search and training programs.
Although its origins date back to the late nineteenth century, the
NIH began to take its modern shape shortly after the end of World War
II. To be sure, the National Cancer Institute was created in 1937, but its
budget remained relatively insignificant. During World War II, Surgeon
General Thomas Parran, one of the most influential figures to occupy
that office, undertook a campaign to expand the Public Health Service’s
authority to award grants to investigate a variety of diseases. Shortly
thereafter he succeeded in assuming responsibility for research con­
tracts awarded by the Committee on Medical Research of the Office
of Scientific Research and Development. These wartime research con­
tracts became the foundation for the phenomenal expansion of the
NIH extramural research program. After 1945 the NIH began to grow
rapidly. With each passing year, fiscal appropriations increased at an
exponential rate.
Slowly but surely the number of institutes also began to proliferate.
The passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946 was but a
beginning. It not only provided for the establishment of the National
Mental Health Advisory Council and the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH), but also contributed to the creation of a biomedical
lobby that included Mary Lasker, Florence Mahoney, Representative
John Fogarty, and Senator Lister Hill. In succeeding decades these and