Cayo Santiago and the laboratory of perinatal physiology: recollections

Interest in comparative vertebrate neuroanatomy moved the author's plea for the continuation of the Cayo Santiago monkey colony when it was put for sale in 1947. Grants from the National Institutes of Health permitted its precarious subsistence until the mid 1950s, when a casual meeting with the Director of the Laboratory of Neuroanatomical Sciences in Bethesda aroused the latter's interest. Through his efforts the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness solved the macaques' plight and established the Laboratory of Perinatal Physiology in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. Events of this venture are narrated from the author's participation and additional information in his file. Anecdotes are related as a background of the growth and development of the project until the early 1960s when the author's association with it came to an end.