Medicine: Patient 00-00-01

"To obtain the best results from laboratory research," said the U.S. Public Health Service, "there should be available a hospital to which patients suffering from a particular disease . . . could be admitted." That was in 1911, and it took a generation for PHS to get its plans to the blueprint stage. Last week in Bethesda, Md., the blueprint at length became reality; the spang-new Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health opened its door to patients.

First to arrive was a tall, aging Maryland farmer who got out of a car,...

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