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we don't have many mentally ill people in France.” I'm sure he was badly informed about the size of his problem and, undoubtedly, there are just no facilities to take care of the mentally ill in any adequate way.
When we arrived in London an appointment was arranged for us with Aneurin Bevin, who was then the Minister of Health in Great Britain. He was enormously vital and energetic, with pink cheeks. He offered us tea at once in his office. I was anxious to know whether or not he had any plans for spending any real money for research to find new treatments and cures to keep people alive and in good condition longer. Research seemed something very immaterial to Bevin and I could take no impression on him whatever. Actually, the British Research Council had then only about two million dollars a year to spend, which was totally inadequate considering the many problems and the number of British investigators of importance already at hand. The greatest therapeutic discovery in the history of mankind was made at Oxford within the decade, that is, penicillin and its clinical usefulness. And I was puzzled by a man so vital and intelligent not understanding that more funds to encourage research might bring further triumphs in medicine and cut down the expense of the medical care plan that they were just instituting in Great Britain. After all they could keep people out of the hospitals if they knew of better ways to treat them.
They were doing research in the field of tuberculosis,
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