Peter Bent Brigham Marks Anniversary; Berry Hails Work

Congratulating the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at its 50th anniversary celebration dinner last night, Dean George P. Berry of the Medical School praised the Harvard teaching hospital for combining "compassion and concern for its patients" with "ruthless demands for cold logic" in its scientific research.

"The Brigham has sought since the day of its founding to inculcate in all of its people a sense of the unknown and the unknowable, a vigorous scientific curiosity, and a humanitarian concern for the sick. It has succeeded extra-ordinarily well," Berry commented.

Noting that the Brigham was founded at the very time when scientific medicine was spurring today's scientific revolution," Berry pointed to the present condition of this revolution that is now penetrating to the molecular level."

"Today's biologist is bringing together the disciplines of the chemist, physicist, mathematician and many others, achieving thereby the unifying concepts of the cellular activity. We are entering a new world," Berry said, "as one can see brilliantly exemplified at the Brigham."

The Brigham has always tried to "prevent dichotomy from developing between the science of medicine and the art of the healer," Berry stated. "At the Brigham--as elsewhere throughout Harvard Medicine--the goal of our united endeavors focuses on the care of the patient--the best care--and thereby the achievement of a healthier America."

Recalling President Eliot's warning what excellence can lead to complacency, Berry stated that the Brigham has maintained its high excellence only by being "ever alert to this danger."