title: Marston Warns of Threat to NIH.
abstract: A direct sense of alarm for the future of the National Institutes of Health is evident in the farewell speech of former director Robert Q. Marston. Associates of Marston, who was abruptly dismissed this January, say he was told by the White House that the decision was for neither personal nor institutional reasons. Others have suggested that Marston was dismissed simply because he was appointed by a Democratic Administration. However this may be, Marston's valedictory, delivered on 27 April, is concerned not about his own situation, but that of the NIH.