Postscript: Political Science
343
support crackpot stuff like this, they fumed, he would have to see to it
that additional money was given to NIH, since they wouldn't fund this
work at the expense of "good, solid research projects."
However, Cranston obviously was interested, and he must have leaned
on the VA a little, for its policy changed briefly. The administrators
expanded rehabilitation research, appointing a well-known orthopedic
surgeon named Vernon Nickel to head it. As soon as he hit Washing-
ton, he called and asked what he could do for me. I told him that for
years I'd been wanting to organize an international symposium on mech-
anisms of growth control and their clinical promise. Before I'd even
finished describing the idea he asked how much I needed. I said
$25,000, and he said it was on its way. Predictably, Vernon didn't last
long in the capital; he was gone right alter I organized the conference,
but by then it was too late to cancel the funds.
The meeting was held in September 1979, and it exceeded all expec-
tations. Every important researcher in the field was there, except for
Meryl Rose, who can't stand crowds, and Marc Singer, who was ill. It
brought together in one set of proceedings irrefutable evidence that a
knowledge of the bioelectricity of growth would lead to incredible
breakthroughs in medicine. Since then, a few more grants for regenera-
tion work have opened up, and articles on bioelectromagnetism have
begun to appear more often in the journals.
At a June 1978 meeting in Washington, requested by Senator
Cranston to plan more regeneration research, my colleagues and I gave
(we thought) an exciting and scientifically successful preview of the work
that would be presented at the full-scale symposium a year later. At the
end, however, the director stood up and said our work was largely er-
roneous and wholly without significance. "We see absolutely no reason
to change the direction of VA research," she pontificated. "We see no
reason to expand any programs in the area of regeneration." That was
that for Cranston's initiative. The meeting appeared to be just a setup so
the VA bigwigs could write him a letter saying they'd duly considered
the work of all the experts, weighed it in the balance, and found it
wanting.
However, my co-workers and I decided to give it the old college try
for more funds. Our grant expired December 31, 1979, and we had to
submit our new proposal by the preceding January. By now our nemesis
was assistant chief medical director, so it was impossible to sneak one
around her. The VA seems to change its application instructions every
year,
and
this
year
we
were specifically told our program
was a "type
III."
Therefore we weren't to submit a detailed write-up of each pro-