Gift to Medical School
It is announced by Dr. John P. Bowler, dean of the Dartmouth College Medical School, that a gift of $80,000 has been made by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for research in Physiological Optics, a department of the School. The offer of the gift was made to Pres. Ernest M. Hopkins and the Dartmouth board of trustees. At a recent meeting the trustees voted their grateful acceptance of the offer which will provide needed funds for continued research in this department of the Medical School.
Prof. Adelbert Ames, Jr., and Dr. Gordon H. Gliddon are jointly working on problems in ocular measurements and it is to their researches that this gift for the development of the department of Physiological Optics will be applied. Over a period of three years, preceded by several years of individual research, Professor Ames and Dr. Gliddon conducted experiments in their laboratory in Wilder Hall and then in June, 1928, they presented their findings and exhibited their apparatus for ocular measurements at the meeting of the American Medical Association in Minneapolis. The two Dartmouth scientists were awarded bronze medals emblematic of third place in the exhibits of individual investigations for their exhibit described as "showing significant application of physics to ophthalmology. " Since that time Professor Ames and Dr. Gliddon have been occupied with many cases referred to them by eye specialists and in perfecting the machines with which they have been able to attain greater refinements of measurements than have been hitherto possible.
Dr. Charles Sheard, Professor of Biophysics and Physiological Optics, the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, University of Minnesota, in writing an appreciation of the papers presented by Professor Ames and Dr. Gliddon before the American Medical Association said: "The present work of Professor Ames and Dr. Gliddon on 'Ocular Measurements' is to be hailed, therefore, not only as a valuable contribution in a very important field of scientific endeavor but also as an indication of the probability that American physiological opticists will become leaders in this field. Those interested in vision, irrespective of their slant of mind on the subject and irrespective of their agreement or disagreement with the conclusions reached by the authors, can rejoice with the faculty, students and alumni of Dartmouth College in the fact that research work of this type and of such far-reaching results has been undertaken and will be continued, I hope, for many years to come." Mr. Rockefeller's gift is made at a time when funds available for unrestricted uses in this department of research will be of great assistance to the Medical School.
