Med. Grants Increasing at Slower Rate

The Medical School announced yesterday that it had received grants from Federal agencies totaling $4, 761, 664 during the quarter ending last month.

These grants represent a 31 per cent increase over the same quarter last year. Lower grants in other quarters, however, are expected to limit this year's overall increase to 7.8 per cent. The normal annual increase in Federal grants to the Medical School is 15 per cent.

War Squeeze

Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, attributed the slight drop to Federal budget squeeze resulting from the Vietnam war.

The Medical School depends on Federal agencies for 68.1 per cent of its budget. The impact of the President's economy program will not be felt at the Medical School until the next fiscal year begins this July. Ebert said the Medical School will try to get additional private grants in order to continue the necessary educational functions of the school.

Most of the Federal grants are designated for specific research projects. A few, such as the "Medical Resource Library Grant" to Harvard, are of more direct benefit to the Medical School's educational services.

The largest single Federal grant, of $682, 491, was awarded to support the Anesthesiology Center for Research and Training. The smallest grant, $417, went to Dr. David T. Armstrong, assistant professor of Anatomy in the School of Dentistry, to help support a study of ovarian metabolism and steroid biosynthesis.

Drugs Study

Dr. Peter B. Dews, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, received a grant for the continuation of his study of the effects of drugs on private behavior.

Dews said his work reveals how the physiological effect of administered chemicals differs with changes in activity. The importance of activity in drug response supports the theory that business executives are prone to psychosomatic disorders not because of anxiety but because of the work they do.