DOI article:
Flexner, Simon: The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57254#0474
THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE
FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH, NEW YORK
By
Dr. SIMON FLEXNER
Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York
INTRODUCTION
rHE Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901 by Mr. John
D. Rockefeller, and was chartered under the laws of the State of New York as
a Philanthropie Corporation, the purposes of which are thus set forth in the charter:
“The objects of said Corporation shall he to conduct, assist and encourage in-
vestigations in the Sciences and arts of hygiene, medicine and surgery, and allied
subjects, in the nature and causes of disease and the methods of its prevention and
treatment, and to make knowledge relating to these various subjects available for the
protection of the health of the public and the improved treatment of disease and
injury. It shall be within the purposes of said Corporation to use any means to
those ends which from time to time shall seem to it expedient, including research,
publication. education, the establishment and maintenance of charitable or bene-
volent activities, agencies or institutions appropriate thereto, and the aid of any
other such activities. agencies or institutions already established or which may here-
after be established.”
The history of the circumstances surrounding the creation of a scientific Insti-
tution is always interesting and instructive. Mr. Rockefeller’s philanthropies are
numerous, varied. and world wide in scope. They are the product of minute thought,
study, and planning, in which a group of advisers possessed of Imagination and
judgment cooperated with Mr. Rockefeller. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research was conceived. not by physicians or scientists, but rather by laymen who
studied the state of medical knowledge at the end of the nineteenth Century and
concluded that the time was favorable for the establishment in the United States of
an institute devoted exclusively to medical research. just as institutions devoted to
physical or Chemical research might be founded.
Before the creation of the Rockefeller Institute, research in medicine in the
United States had been carried on in the universities, and progress had already
been made at a constantly increasing rate. The growth of the medical Sciences was,
however, behind that of the physical Sciences, so that the conclusion reached by
Mr. Frederick T. Gates, of Mr. Rockefeller’s advisory staff, was that “it
became clear that medicine could hardly hope to become a Science until it should
be endowed. and qualified men be enabled to give themselves to uninterrupted study
and investigation. on ample salary, entirely independent of practice . This view
was accepted by Mr. Rockefeller. who made the initial contribution toward the
eventual permanent establishment of the Rockefeller Institute.
The original gift was not designed to build at once an institution for medical
research. but was rather to be used by a group of scientifically trained medical men
to ascertain the resources in adequately trained younger men of the universities
engaged in the pursuit of medical research.
458
FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH, NEW YORK
By
Dr. SIMON FLEXNER
Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York
INTRODUCTION
rHE Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901 by Mr. John
D. Rockefeller, and was chartered under the laws of the State of New York as
a Philanthropie Corporation, the purposes of which are thus set forth in the charter:
“The objects of said Corporation shall he to conduct, assist and encourage in-
vestigations in the Sciences and arts of hygiene, medicine and surgery, and allied
subjects, in the nature and causes of disease and the methods of its prevention and
treatment, and to make knowledge relating to these various subjects available for the
protection of the health of the public and the improved treatment of disease and
injury. It shall be within the purposes of said Corporation to use any means to
those ends which from time to time shall seem to it expedient, including research,
publication. education, the establishment and maintenance of charitable or bene-
volent activities, agencies or institutions appropriate thereto, and the aid of any
other such activities. agencies or institutions already established or which may here-
after be established.”
The history of the circumstances surrounding the creation of a scientific Insti-
tution is always interesting and instructive. Mr. Rockefeller’s philanthropies are
numerous, varied. and world wide in scope. They are the product of minute thought,
study, and planning, in which a group of advisers possessed of Imagination and
judgment cooperated with Mr. Rockefeller. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research was conceived. not by physicians or scientists, but rather by laymen who
studied the state of medical knowledge at the end of the nineteenth Century and
concluded that the time was favorable for the establishment in the United States of
an institute devoted exclusively to medical research. just as institutions devoted to
physical or Chemical research might be founded.
Before the creation of the Rockefeller Institute, research in medicine in the
United States had been carried on in the universities, and progress had already
been made at a constantly increasing rate. The growth of the medical Sciences was,
however, behind that of the physical Sciences, so that the conclusion reached by
Mr. Frederick T. Gates, of Mr. Rockefeller’s advisory staff, was that “it
became clear that medicine could hardly hope to become a Science until it should
be endowed. and qualified men be enabled to give themselves to uninterrupted study
and investigation. on ample salary, entirely independent of practice . This view
was accepted by Mr. Rockefeller. who made the initial contribution toward the
eventual permanent establishment of the Rockefeller Institute.
The original gift was not designed to build at once an institution for medical
research. but was rather to be used by a group of scientifically trained medical men
to ascertain the resources in adequately trained younger men of the universities
engaged in the pursuit of medical research.
458