The Medical Research Council undertook two controlled clinical trials of potentially curative drugs in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. The first trial, carried out in 1943-4 to investigate patulin treatment for the common cold, was arguably the first double blind curative trial with concurrent controls in the general population in modern times.1 It was also probably one of the last with non-randomised or quasi-randomised2 allocation of subjects, but it used technology of the highest order then available. The MRC Patulin Clinical Trials Committee (1943) was chaired by Sir Harold Himsworth, and its statisticians were M Greenwood and W J Martin.

The second trial, carried out in 1947-8 to evaluate streptomycin in tuberculosis, is widely accepted as the first randomised curative trial.3 The MRC Streptomycin in Tuberculosis Trials Committee (1946) was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Marshall, and the statistician was Sir Austin Bradford Hill. As a member of the MRC scientific staff, I was secretary to both committees.

Tuberculosis treatment in the 1940s: Broomfield Hospital, near Chelmsford

(Credit: POPPERFOTO)