Funding medical research for over 100 years
2000
The BMA was amongst the first of the professional bodies to award scholarships and prizes to encourage and further medical research. These have been awarded since 1840, initially at the discretion of the BMA Council and often on an ad hoc basis. In 1874 the grants were put on a firmer footing when the annual meeting agreed that the sum of £200 should be made available for the purpose of making grants in aid of research in medical science and collateral subjects. The Grants-in-Aid Committee, subsequently known as the Board of Science and Education, was appointed to administer and distribute the grants.
One hundred years ago...
In 1900, £1,000 was awarded in scholarships and grants for the promotion of scientific investigation. These were reported in the British Medical Journal and included:
| J L Bunch MD |
For an investigation of the innervation in the intestine. | £150 |
| J S Macdonald LRCP | To study electrical phenomena in arteries in relation to blood pressure. | £150 |
| J Eyre MD |
For an investigation into the bacteriological flora of normal milk and into the conveyance of pathogenic organisms by this article of food. | £200 |
| J O W Barratt MD |
For an experimental investigation into phloridzin diabetes. | £10 |
| FD Boyd MD |
For the investigation of the potash, soda, and magnesia metabolism and excretion in nephritis, with its bearing on the question of uraemia. | £10 |
| R W Dodgson MD |
For prosecuting a research on the determination of the amount and distribution of chloroform in the body after anaesthesia. | £20 |
| N Bishop Harman BA MB | For an examination into the outflow of visceral nerves in man. | £4 |
| R Hutchinson MD |
To study the chemistry of red bone marrow and its influence on blood formation | £5 |
| Lydia Leney MD |
To determine the value of subcutaneous feeding. A research to investigate how substances such as fat, proteid, or carbohydrates can be used when given either (i) when subcutaneously injected, (ii) intravenously injected, or (iii) intraperitoneally injected. | £10 |
| F J Poynton | For a research into the action of toxins upon cardiac muscle. | £5 |
| R D Rudolph MD |
To study the effects of atrophine, hydrocyanic acid and other drugs on the circulation and respiration. | £10 |
| C E Shaw MD |
For continuation of research on structure and functions of vocal cords. | £5 |
| W H B Stoddart | To study the influence of the cortex cerebri on the movements of the iris. | £5 |
| J Watson MD |
To investigate the blood in arthritis deformans, especially in the cachetic stage. Its histological characters - the estimation of the corpuscles, and the proportion of oxyphil and basophil leucocytes. | £5 |
| A H White LRCPI |
For research into the regeneration of the cellular and other constituents of the blood after haemorrhage, with especial reference to the parts played in such regeneration by haemopoietic organs. | £16 |
In the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century, the most common grant requests were for the purchase of scientific equipment such as microscopes. More unusual equipment purchases included, in 1876, £40 to Dr William Rutherford to purchase a small steam engine for use in artificial respiration.
The Middlemore Grant 1877-2002
The longest established research grant is the triennial Middlemore, founded in 1877 by Richard Middlemore FRCS (1824-1891) for the best essay on the scientific and practical value of some improvements in ophthalmic medicine and surgery. The terms under which the grant was made were extended in 1890 with the consent of the donor, to cover not merely the essays, but also research work in ophthalmic medicine and surgery.
Richard Middlemore was apprenticed to a surgeon in Lichfield at the age of sixteen, and in 1823 became a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Five years after its foundation in 1823, Richard Middlemore was appointed assistant-surgeon to the Birmingham Eye Hospital, progressing to full surgeon and thence to consultant. Throughout his working life he contributed to medical journals, and presented courses of lectures. He remained in practice until the age of 75. The first Middlemore grant was made in 1882 and is now offered as a research grant and was last awarded in 2002.
Extract from the obituary of Richard Middlemore FRCS
"Richard Middlemore FRCS was born on October 12th 1804, and so was in his 87th year. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a surgeon of wide local reputation, Mr Chawner, of Lichfield. In 1823 he entered as a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital. During his period of dressership for Mr Vincent he was frequently call upon to dress for Mr Abernethy, and he prided himself on the fact that he not only never got a scolding from Mr Abernethy but received several invitations from him to dine at Bedford Row. On leaving London he carried a warm recommendation from Mr Abernethy to Mr Hodgson, who was then surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, and by far the most distinguished surgeon in the Midlands.
For three years he acted as dressing pupil to Mr Hodgson, and for more than ten years afterwards as his friendly assistant. His chief friend at St Bartholomew's was the present Sir Richard Owen KCB, a friendship which continued warmly cemented during his life. After leaving St Bartholomew's he maintained a friendly correspondence with most of his teachers, and especially with William Lawrence. Writing a year or two ago, he said, mentioning Mr Lawrence, "his reference to my writings in the various medical journals afforded me a degree of encouragement, which, after a lapse of nearly sixty years, I think of with feelings of the deepest gratitude and pleasure."
Mr Middlemore engaged in general practice with an especial leaning towards surgery and ophthalmology, stimulated probably in these respects by the example of Mr Hodgson. In 1823 the Birmingham Eye Hospital was founded, and in 1828 he was appointed assistant-surgeon, in 1828 full surgeon, and in 1849 joined the consulting staff. In 1831 he won the Jacksonian Prize, and in 1835 he published his greatest work, A Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye and Its Appendages, which he built upon the foundation of his prize essay. Of this work it may justly be said that it presented with the greatest accuracy and completeness, all that was valuable in theory and practice in the ophthalmic science of the period. So thoroughly was this recognised by contemporary opthalmologists, that is was spoken of as "the most complete treatise on diseases of the eye with which we are acquainted". In 1836 he issued a prospectus of a journal of ophthalmology, but it fell through for want of support from publishers and the profession.
From his earliest days he was a steady contributor to the medical journals. His writings attracted attention on the Continent, and his name is now frequently seen mentioned by those who are dealing with the history and growth of ophthalmology. He was active in his practice as well as in his scientific and literary work. It was no unusual thing for him to be engaged upon magazine and review work for a great part of the night, and for him to begin the seeing of free patients early, after a snatch of breakfast, and continue this til 10 o'clock, then to see his private patients til 3, after which he would enter his carriage and drive to Lichfield or Leamington, or other distant town, to consultation, taking a hasty meal on the way.
Besides being a very active practitioner, he was a willing and acceptable teacher. His courses of lectures were well attended and of intrinsic merit. He remained in active practice til 1879, when he completed his 75th year; and so great was his love of his work that he would have remained still longer in it if he could have satisfied himself that he was doing justice to his patients. To the day of his death he maintained his interest in his work, and regretted his inability to do more for his profession than he had done.
In 1877 he founded a triennial prize in opthalmology in connection with the British Medical Association, a body which, from its earliest existence, had always his warmest support. In 1888 he made a grant of £1,000 to endow a course of postgraduate lectures in ophthalmology in connection with the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital, the scene of his early labours. In 1890 he gave £2,000 to the Birmingham Asylum for the Blind, an institution which he laboured earnestly as early as 1838 to establish. The interest of this gift he devoted to helping those who, having been educated in the institution, might be prevented starting a useful life by want of books, or tools, or instruments.
Throughout the whole of his life his earnest love for and devotion to his profession, and his generous unostentatious sympathy, endeared him to those associated with him. Conscientious in his relations with his professional brethren, modest, never seeking notoriety, simple, kind, generous, sensitive to a fault, always maintaining a high standard of professional life, he has furnished his survivors an example which we shall do well to follow. Of him and his teaching it may well be said, Memoria bene redditae vitae sempiterna."
[From The British Medical Journal, 14 March 1891, p612]