RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

82 THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
Galton Laboratory, University of London
Studies in Human Genetics in Relation to Mental Disease
An appropriation of ?35,000 was made to the
Medical Research Council, Great Britain, for
the support of studies in human genetics in relation
to mental disease, to be carried out at the
Galton Laboratory of the University of London
during the five-year period from July 1, 1935, to
June 30, 1940, under the direction of Dr. R. A.
Fisher. From the funds thus provided the salaries
of research workers and a laboratory attendant
will be paid and equipment and supplies will be
purchased. The Medical Research Council will
act as disbursing agent and will coordinate the
studies with other investigations in this field
which it is sponsoring. The Galton Laboratory
will furnish working space and the services of
Dr. Fisher as director of the studies. The laboratory
has an unusual amount of material on
human heredity.
Dr. Fisher's project is essentially a study of
human inheritance along the line of serological
research upon persons mentally defective or diseased.
Serological studies of Hirschfeld, Landsteiner,
Schiff, Todd, and others have shown that
the blood of human beings contains determinable
substances which are transmitted by heredity
in definite and recognizable ways. There is
evidence for assuming that these substances are
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