Laissez-faire in research.

These were informal remarks in an after-dinner speech about nutritional and pediatric research as it was initiated 50 years ago when the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation was opened. Although from the beginning there were "divisions" in the institute, the success of the organization was due to cooperation rather than division and to the freedom of the investigators to alter their directions according to their change of interests and to changes of needs and opportunities. A plea is made to let capable investigators choose their topics and their methods of research; they are most likely to have success when they are left alone and free of outside pressures.