Opportunities for Youth-An Editorial - ACS Publications

---

1326

INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

integrity and character of the investigator when important medical discoveries are involved. The ideal to strive for may perhaps be that no medical disooveries should be subject to any restrictions whatever. h our present commercial economic system, however, and with existing laws and business practices such an ideal is difficult to attain, since not all may live up to it. We must therefore guide ourselves in accordance with the economic situation that exists today and seek to attain our ideals through the existing economic machinery rather than to ignore it entirely on the ground of ethical consideration alone. The act of securing patents for medical discoveries is not unethical in itself, and such act does not necessarily mean that personal profits are sought. Under our existing laws and commercial practices dedication to the public of important medical discoveries by mere publication is not always the best procedure to follow. The public can often be best served by receiving the benefits of a new medical discovery under the control of a patent for the reasons fully given in this report. Through making a medical discovery, it may become the duty of the investigator to make sure by means of patents that the public will actually benefit from his disaovery and not be subjected to unfair exploitation by others who may commercialize it. Although in general the ethics of the medical profession may properly prohibit its members and their close associates from obtaining aiiy monetary profits through medical patents,

VOL. 29, NO. 11

the following possible conditions may sometimes demand recognition : (a) Where, in introducing the medical invention, commercial large-scale operation is necessary involving expensive equipment and large personnel. I n such a case the manufacturer must be assured by means of patents that he will not meet with ruinous competition and thereby lose his initial investment in an enterprise for producing a new medical product or apparatus. Before placing a new product on the market, a great deal of preliminary work, expensive equipment, and salesmanship are necessary, requiring a considerable outlay of capital. No manufacturer would be willing to go to this expense unless he knew that he could obtain an adequate return on this investment through patent protection. (b) Where the expenses incurred in developing the invention were unusually large and the funds were supplied by individual investigators or organizations without the assistance of any public funds. I n such cases there is a legitimate reason for recouping the expenses involved in the research. The public should certainly be willing to pay the actual cost for what it gets. (c) Where a medical invention has been made a t a university or similar institution having limited funds for research, there may be some justifications in such case for obtaining funds by means of patents for further research of the type which will ultimately inure to the public welfare.

Opportunities for Youth-An Editorial

EACH

generation produces those who feel that everything has been done, there is nothing left to be invented or improved, and youth has no opportunity. If one confines his thoughts to what has taken place during the past 50 years, and will list the new things that have appeared during that time, he will find himself quite overwhelmed by their magnitude. In that period we have seen developed the whole synthetic organic chemical industry, the synthetic fibers, plastics, the petroleum industry as we know it today, uncounted advances in rubber, in glass, in protective coatings, and alloys. Refrigeration, heating, and insulation have been revolutionized, our food habits have changed, as have our methods of transportation, communication, and amusement. We build differently, we have new ways of employing our leisure, new tools have been devised, and on every hand in what we like to call a civilized community there are profound changes, even though on all sides there are still evidences of the way father used to do. But if we can minimize the past and think of what is yet to be done, of great undertakings that are still far short of perfection, we see many opportunities for youth. Television has gone a long way, but is not generally available, there are several steps to be taken before air conditioning is as easily commanded as a new

heating plant, progress in house building seems to have lagged a bit in comparison with some other fields of work, city noises are still with us, we are told the talking book has a job to do, and that some day we may listen to a good sound film which will include illustrations in beautiful colors and which will save us the fatigue of reading. From a scientific point of view the world is surely far from finished. But can the young man do much about it? A psychologist who has investigated the history of certain important contributions and reported his findings in baseball language says chemists reach their highest batting average between the ages of 27 and 39 and that the best work of the chemical world is done by men under 40. In his computation, each year of the scientist’s life counted as one time at bat and each sensational discovery or important contribution was scored as a hit. It is interesting to note, for example, that Lord Rutherford was but 37 when awarded the Nobel Prize, and Urey but 38, Madam Curie was 31 when she and her husband discovered radium, William Perkin discovered mauve when only 18 years of age, Edison from the age of 33 to 36 took out 312 patents, and this list might be greatly extended. Youth does have opportunities, perhaps directly proportional to ability, training, and disposition to work.