Evening star., 1960-05-29

Medical background.
AS the Senate debates the issue,
it will be aware of the increasing
health consciousness of constitu-
ents-from medical insurance for
the aged to the effect of pesticides
on cranberries. 1t will be mindful,
too, that six of its members have
died of cancer in the last few
years.
With the Jones report-as a
basis of the appropriation request
before 1.-THE Senate will consider
also the men who prepared the
report.
Leading the drive for approval
of the budget will be the man
with the geniality of horse and
buggy" doctor, but who moves too
fast to catch. In the five years
that Senator Hill has led the fight
for larger funds for N.I.H., he
has won the battle. And as a re-
suit N.IH.'s budget has increased
fourfold since 1855.
In the House, Representative
John Fogarty, Democrat of Rhode
Island, has provided the same
kind of leadership. He passed up
recently an almost sure chance
for a Senate seat to continue his
campaign for larger H. E. w.
appropriations in the House.
Senator Hills legislative prac-
tice Of medicine actually did not
begin until about 1945 though he
has been in Congress since 1923.
Only four other members have
been there longer.
LAS a member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee during
World War II, he recalls Il was
struck by the high rejection rSte
for the service because of physical
or psychological reasons.
Also the state of our hospitals
was shocking-So few and so over
crowded" he says. .
So, it was out of this. plus his
boyhood memories of seeing pa
tientS arrive too late" at his
fathers hospital in Montgomery,
Ala, that the Hill-Burton Act OF
l946 was born.
Named for Lord Lister
In Lister Hill there had awak-
ened the desire to do more for the
Nations health and to follow in
the footsteps of his doctor father
and the man for whom he was
named-Lord Joseph Lister. His
father had studied under the dis
coverer of antiseptic techniques at
Kings College in London.
To carry out his decision to
Observation-Disclosures, Sem
ator Hill gave up his No. 3 spot
on the Armed Services Commits
tee in 1949 to take the bottom
place on the Appropriations Com
mittee.
BY 1855 he rose to the top spot
OF the subcommittee dealing with
medical appropriations and was
chairman of the Senate Labor and
Public Welfare Committee.
1t is since that date that the
"revolution"-felt in medical COL
legeS and hospitals here and
abroad-got under way, according
to DR.. Sydney Farber.
And it is the financial angle Of
that revolution" that has caused
concern at the White House. When
last years increased N. I. H.
budget reached the President, he
raised three points:
Is the overall quality of research
being lowered by the increased
quantity of medical research
projects?
VIII classrooms and patients be
neglected by too many medical
scientists going into research?
And will Federal support Of
research be discouraged by in
creased Federal support?
The Jones report takes up these
questions in detail and concludes
that the answer is definitely mo-"
but it recommends immediate
steps to broaden the foundations
for training more doctors and
building more medical schools.
The thorough examination
being given to the entire health
picture of this country - Stimu-
lated by Senator Hills actions in
the past five years-provides the
groundwork for better informed
discussion by laymen as well as
doctors.