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Transcription: [00:10:48]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
What about patients? Suppose someone, friend [[of]] a friend, or a relative contracts muscular dystrophy. What can be done about it? Have you got other chapters throughout the country that people--

[00:11:00]
{SPEAKER name="Melville H. Manson"}
Yes, from the initial start in 1950 till the present time, there have been developed over 300 chapters. These are mostly on a county basis and are in practically every state in the union.

[00:11:15]
These chapters are authorized to conduct a patient service program, which consists of the furnishing of wheelchairs and braces and orthopedic appliances,

[00:11:27]
payment for physical therapy when it's indicated and prescribed by a physician, the development of recreational and educational programs, and a host of things to make life more worth living for these people who are inevitably doomed.

[00:11:46]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
And do you have help from various groups? I believe the letter carriers and the firefighters are working with your associations, your chapters in carrying on this work.

[00:11:59]
{SPEAKER name="Melville H. Manson"}
That is correct. In 1953, the letter carriers of America made marks for muscular dystrophy and raised nearly three and a half million dollars.

[00:12:11]
The following year, the Firefighters and the Fire-chiefs Associations of America adopted muscular dystrophy as their charity, and again, in a very short period of time, raised somewhat over four million dollars for the association.

[00:12:29]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
And are there other groups?

[00:12:30]
{SPEAKER name="Melville H. Manson"}
There are any number of other groups, the Odd Fellows and the Rebeccas, Eagles and their Auxiliaries, the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, Junior Chambers in Commerce and some localities, and a whole host of people are interesting themselves in this cause.

[00:12:49]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
And all of these people together with your own association are devoting themselves to, sort of, outlawing this disease as it were, finding out the cause, perhaps a treatment for it,

[00:13:02]
and I think it's one very interesting thing Dr. Manson, that the whole desire is to really do away with the cause of a disease, in this case as well as in polio, and so forth. You think there will be a possibility of that sort of thing happening?

[00:13:23]
{SPEAKER name="Melville H. Manson"}
Well, in our minds there is no question about the fact that eventually, and we hope sooner than eventually, connotes, there will be an effective treatment for muscular dystrophy.

[00:13:37]
It is most probably a metabolic disease, there is some evidence that vitamin E-like substances may have a, play a part in this, and we are convinced that the future hope for victims of muscular dystrophy lie in this program of research.

[00:13:57]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"}
Well thank you very much, Dr. Manson, our Adventures in Science guest today is Doctor Melville H. Manson, scientific director of the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America.