Abstract
SIR EDWARD MELLANBY will shortly be retiring from the secretaryship of the Medical Research Council, a post which to has held for some sixteen years. He has however, served and inspired the Council for close on thirty-five years. He was invited by thf the parent body of the Council, the short-lived Medical Research Committee, to undertake an inquiry canse of rickets soon after the beginning First World War, and his remarkable success in solving this problem soon gained him a world-wide reputation. He became well known during the inter-war years as a leading exponent of the new science of nutrition. This is not the place to tell of Sir Edward's own important contributions to medical and physiological science—original work which he has pursued vigorously and fruitfully during all his years of administrative work at the Medical Research Council. Rather should it here be remembered that his fearless devotion to the pursuit of truth has stimulated and directed medical research in Great Britain along many and varied tracks with a gratifying degree of success. Those with genuine medical or physiological problems to tackle would not apply to Sir Edward in vain for a hearing. He might conduct searching and sometimes even chastening interviews with aspirants to medical research ; but if he were convinced of the soundness of an idea and the integrity of purpose of its sponsors, he would be prepared to recommend the support of the man and the work with all the resources of his Council. Sir Edward will be sorely missed in his administrative capacity. There is, however, every reason for believing that he will still be able to give much of his time to his own medical research.
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Medical Research Council and Sir Edward Mellanby, G.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.S.. Nature 163, 986 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163986a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163986a0