Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

24 FARRERAS

Pearce Bailey, M.D.

Courtesy of the National Institute of

Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Bailey, the son, was appointed the first director of the NINDB on

October 3, 1951.^28 He had worked at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital

after serving in the U.S. Navy and was at the time chief of the neurology

program within the Neuropsychiatry Division, headed by psychiatrist

Daniel Blain, of the VA’s Department of Medicine and Surgery.^29 Bailey

actively sought to “advance academic neurology through increasing

facilities for training and research”^30 by creating a medical advisory

committee selected by the ANA’s council, and to explore ways in

which “VA facilities could be supplemented to be of use to their train­

ing and research programs in neurology.”^31

An increase in the 1952 budget of the NINDB to $1.99 million still

saw no money directed toward beginning any new research programs and,

with the NIH Clinical Center still under construction, no laboratory or

clinical space had been allocated to the NINDB either.^32 The research

conducted by the institute was still supported by the NIMH and the

institute’s survival was unclear.^33 To address this situation, Bailey, who

had been the AAN’s second president in 1949-1950, appointed an

AAN liaison committee to meet with the directors of voluntary health

organizations and present a unified front to the Congressional appro­

priations committee. The National Committee for Research in Neu­

rological Disorders (NCRND), headed by Baker, resulted from this

July 25, 1952, meeting that was attended by the AAN liaison committee,

also the ANA president, the organizations’ directors, and the repre­

sentatives of the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults.^34