Abstract
This essay, written as a contribution to the June 1987 participation by the NINCDS in the celebration of the centennial of the NIH (dated from the founding of the Hygienic Laboratory at Staten Island in 1887), discusses the impact of the NINDB/NINCDS on the neurosciences. Contrasts are drawn with the status of basic and clinical neurosciences in the late 19th century and prior to 1950, when the NINDB was established. This impact has involved its role as advocate and focal point for the support of research and research training in the neurosciences; the training of research and academic personnel and the funding of research projects, both significant factors in the postwar proliferation of methods and technologies; and the catalyzing of the steady progress in scientific knowledge, as reflected in examples from various facets of the programs of the neurological institute, in a continuum from the very basic and fundamental to the very clinical and pathological neurosciences.