xviii PREFACE
It is a pity that, partly because of the large amount of funding devoted
to the extramural program as compared to the intramural program, so
little is known of the history of the NIH intramural programs in neu
rology and mental health. The intramural programs have been very
influential over the years and are fertile ground for historical research in
the biomedical sciences. However, the scant published literature and
archival material available have meant that historians and other scholars
have not easily been able to devote themselves to a detailed investigation.
The history that can be written depends on the records that are kept and
the resources at hand. In this book, for instance, the NIMH intramural
program can be discussed more fully than that of the NINDB because
more records and scientists from that program are available. The hope
is that the publication of a volume such as this will spur scientists and
administrators from both institutes to collect, preserve, and donate their
archival materials to the Office of NIH History and the National Library
of Medicine. The book also aims to serve as a catalyst for new areas
of descriptive and analytical research by historians and other scholars
of biomedical science.
Part I of this volume begins with a history of the establishment of
the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and how its Division of
Mental Hygiene was the precursor of today’s NIMH. An overview of
the national mental health program, with a discussion of the National
Mental Health Act and the establishment of the National Mental Health
Advisory Council, leads to an organizational description of the institute,
including both its extramural and intramural programs. A similar his
tory of the establishment of the NINDB is introduced and tied to that
of the NIMH. The two institutes shared a joint intramural basic research
program throughout the 1950s. This was created by the first director of
basic research, Seymour S. Kety. In 1956, Kety stepped down and Robert
B. Livingston took his place. Short segments describe the programs that
Livingston developed or encouraged. A concluding section discusses the
transition between Livingston and his successor, John C. Eberhart. The
first part of the book ends with descriptions of the other components
of the intramural programs of these institutes; namely, the separate
NIMH and NINDB clinical research programs.