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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Lord Lister and had named Senator Hill after him--stood up and said, “I understand the problem of medical research is C A S H.” After this he proceeded to give a witty and interesting talk on the general subject of research and, unfortunately, Senator Dworshak, who was sitting next to me, whispered to me, “I'm allergic to penicillin.”

Q:

Do you think the doctor made any impression on the Senators?

Lasker:

I think mildly, but everything is very short-lived with them and it came a little bit too soon before the conference to do any specific identifiable good.

Early in '55 we decided that we needed more specifics to show to the Congress about what the pay-offs of medical research had been, and we presented Senator Hill with a brochure to summarize the progress.

Q:

This is the Lasker Foundation brochure.

Lasker:

Yes, and I'm going to give you a series of brochures.

In the field of high blood pressure new drugs had been evaluated clinically by grantees of the National Heart Institute, including the drug Serpasil made from rauwolfia, which later was shown to be an important tranquilizing drug by Dr. Nate Klein. As a matter of fact, the drugs whose evaluation was supported by the National Heart Institute have caused a





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