Medicine: Joint Study

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Of all chronic diseases, arthritis is far & away the most prevalent (7,000,000 U.S. sufferers). It is also one of the most mysterious. Last week a $2,500,000 campaign was begun to try to discover the cause of the disease. Arthritic Lionel Barrymore headed the sponsors. The main effort will be a big research program, to be centered at Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital, Hot Springs, Ark.

Arthritis is the modern name for rheumatism and "the misery," one of the oldest diseases on earth (even dinosaurs had it, as their fossil remains show). Doctors recognize two chief types: 1) rheumatoid, an inflammation which usually attacks people between the ages of 20 and 40; and 2) osteoarthritis, a degenerative ailment of old age. Symptoms: painful swellings of the joints, often starting in the fingers or knees, and migrating from joint to joint.

In early stages, arthritis can often be relieved, sometimes cured, by X rays, injections of gold salts, fever treatment, vaccines, heat applications. But treatments are still hit or miss; too little is known of the disease and its cause. Most doctors believe that worry, infection or poor diet may make a person susceptible. But they are betting that the actual culprit will prove to be a germ.