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Mrs. Lasker, I believe this time you wanted to talk about your relations with the American Heart Association, did you not?

Well, the effort to help the development of the American Heart Association.

In 1947, after gradually recovering from jaundice that summer, I determined to do something about research in the field of heart diseases...

Let me interrupt. Were you very ill with jaundice?

Yes, I was quite ill and it took me a long time to recover, and I had a lot of time to reflect, something which I don't always have. And I realized that even although we had gotten the American Cancer Society and some interest in the Congress for more funds for research in cancer, heart was the number-one cause of death in the United States and in the Western World.

So, in a sense, you were recharging your batteries during this period.

Yes but I would have been just as happy not to have had it.