ACHIEVED DISTINCTION IN MEDICAL RESEARCH

To THE EDITOR: To Lyndon F. Small '20 have been given many honors of late. Not long ago he was elected editor in chief of the Journal ofOrganic Chemistry. In June the American Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association presented him with a certificate of award for the most outstanding piece of work done in the medical and pharmaceutical fields in this country during the previous year.

In January, Small became head chemist, Division of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, of the U. S. Public Health Service. His headquarters hereafter will be at the National Institute's new building near Washington.

TEACHER AT HARVARD

"Red" Small was an outstanding man during his undergraduate days. He did a turn in the coast artillery 1917-18 and annexed a Phi Beta Kappa key, also held membership in Alpha Chi Sigma and Sigma Xi. On graduating, he went to Harvard under the Henry Elijah Parker Fellowship and took an A.M. from Harvard in 1922 and Ph.D. in 1926. He also spent part of his time in Cambridge as a teacher in M. I. T. His official connection with Harvard was as instructor, assistant and duPont Fellow. Then Dr. Small was made Sheldon Travelling Fellow from Harvard to the University of Munich for the years 1926-27. He found the surroundings of Munich offered much of delight to a Dartmouth man, such as plenty of mountains, good skiing, and good Munich beer. One year was not sufficient in such a delightful atmosphere and he remained until 1928 as National Research Fellow. While in Munich, Red met Bill Pepin '18 (Dr. Pepin, the well known Lowell dentist) and they climbed the Matterhorn together.

Upon Small's return to the United States, he went to the University of Virginia where he organized the chemical research for the Committee on Drug Addiction of the National Research Council. In connection with this work, he was sent to Geneva in 1931 as Technical Advisor to the U. S. Delegation of the League of Nations Narcotics Conference and again in 1937 to London to the Opium Assay Commission of the League of Nations.

The work at the University of Virginia was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation for 10 years and was then taken over by the government and Dr. Small was made head chemist. He has during the past ten years been seeking the solution o£ what seemed initially to be a hopeless problem the synthesis of a drug that should possess analgesic action equivalent to that of morphine but without its undersirable side effects. His investigation into the preparation of a synthetic product involved the preparation of thousands of new organic compounds. Of these a few hundred reached the pharmacologist and less than two dozen went into the medical clinic which is the ultimate court of judgment.

His studies on morphine derivatives convinced him that analgesia and addiction do not necessarily run parallel and that it is even possible to increase analgesic effect while lowering addiction ability.

While none of the synthetic drugs have reached the stage that warrants prolonged clinical trial, Dr. Small has demonstrated that certain synthetic products can exert a morphine-like analgesia. Much work remains to be done in this connection but scientific authorities are hailing his activities as being of tremendous importance. He did the pharmacological work at the University of Virginia, and the clinical work was done by Dr. Eddy of the University of Michigan. Both universities contributed generously of space and supplies while the financial burden was largely borne by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dr. Small was assisted in his studies by a group of pharmacal and chemical manufacturers, who aided substantially by fellowships, gifts of rare drugs and the use of manu-facturing equipment not available in the universities. Small was married in 1922 to Marianne Clayton Brown of New York, and has two children.

It has seemed to me that many Dartmouth men would be interested in this distinguished career of a fellow-alumnus.

Reed if Carnrick 755 Van Wagenen Ave.Jersey City, N. J.

[We are glad to publish biographicalsketches, similar to Dr. Baketel's contribution on Dr. Small, for better understandingof the distinction achieved by many alumniin a wide variety of fields of activity.—ED.]