§ Mr. Knapmanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) for what purpose the department of Bacteriology at the university of Edinburgh applied for funds from the Medical Research Council; and why this application was not acceded to in full;
(2) if the work that the department of bacteriology at the university of Edinburgh proposed to the Medical Research Council is being carried out at other centres.
Mr. JacksonThe department of bacteriology at the University of Edinburgh applied to the Medical Research Council for funds to support research on susceptibility to meningitis (the project is entitled "The Secretor State and Susceptibility to Bacterial Meningitis"). The application was carefully considered by the council's physiological systems and disorders board in the light of advice from 655W expert referees. The decision was that the application was not of sufficient scientific merit to justify full support, but that it should receive limited support to enable the applicants to confirm the premliminary hypothesis on which the study is based.
The Medical Research Council is not aware of any similar work being done in this country. However, I understand that similar work is at present being done in the Netherlands.