WAR ON RHEUMATISM

Evening Star, Issue 22889, 22 February 1938, Page 1

WAR ON RHEUMATISM

EMPIRE COUNCIL SET UP An Empire Rheumatism Council has now been set up for what Lord Horder, the King’s physician, describes as “ war against rheumatism on a wide front.” The British Ministry of Health, realising the importance of the objective, is giving a good measure of support and has suggested that approved societies with money available might well spend it on furthering the work. Medical members of the House of Commons have formed themselves into a group to aid the council’s aims, and tiiey will he strengthened by the inclusion of lay members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Two research fellowships have been made possible by a gift of £13,000 by a private citizen, Mr Alexander Maclean, and other donations totalling £32,000 have been received or promised. The research fellowships will deal with two urgent problems in relation to the causative factors of rheumatic disease. According to Lord Horder, the aim is to arrive as quickly as possible at a standardised system of treatment applicable to the great majority of sufferers from the various forms of rheumatic disease and capable of being used on a national scale. Such a system would bo subject to modification from time to time as more information was gathered from clinical experience. With such an authority as Lord Horder as one of its chief supporters, there is much for sufferers to hope for in this new campaign.