Medicine: Iron Horse to Pasture

Last fortnight, after reaching a record of 2,130 consecutive big-league games, Lou Gehrig, the Yankees' "Iron-Horse," went to Rochester, Minn., checked in at the Mayo Clinic to find out what ailed his slowed-up legs, his weakened grip. After a week of grilling and probing, Dr. Harold Clinton Habein gave Lou, on his 36th birthday, a sealed envelope and a sheaf of X-ray pictures. The verdict: "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis."

Commonly known as chronic infantile paralysis, this rare, creeping disease is a complete mystery to doctors. It attacks the grey matter of the spinal cord, slowly lays waste all muscles controlled by the diseased cord. First to degenerate are the tough fibres in the ball of the thumb. Gradually the other fingers shrivel into a typical "clawhand." Then the arm muscles slowly waste away. After the disease has been intrenched for many years, a patient may lose control of his trunk, face and leg muscles. At the end, he may be little more than skin & bone.

Only treatment Mayo Clinic specialists could prescribe for Lou Gehrig was rest and special exercises. Although doctors said his grueling baseball career had nothing to do with his disease, he will never swing a bat again, nor even whip a fly rod. Said the Iron Horse last week, as he smilingly faced his enforced pasture: "I guess I have to accept the bitter with the sweet. If this is the finish, I'll take it."