Classic Experiment

Sir Edward Mellanby, 54-year-old secretary of Britain's Medical Research Council, is famed for his wit, his wife Lady May (Britain's outstanding authority on tooth decay) and his work on nutrition and pneumonia. In The Lancet last week, Sir Edward discussed "The State and Medical Research," told of the "first recorded experiment in medical science by a king himself," an experiment remarkably similar in technique to work done by scientists on guinea pigs today. Said Sir Edward: "Frederick the Second. Emperor of the Romans, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, known as Stupor Mundi, the Wonder of the World, A. D. 1192-1250. Of him it is recorded that he took two knights and gave them identical meals. One of these knights he then sent out hunting and the other he ordered to bed. Several hours later he killed both and examined the contents of their alimentary canals. He found that digestion had proceeded further in the stomach of the sleeping knight. All will agree that this was a good experiment, but whether it can be classed as clinical or animal experimentation remains doubtful."

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