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Two recent books, the proceedings of symposia, are heartening evidence of the increased effort to cure or prevent amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The willingness of clinicians and laboratory investigators to devote themselves to such an appalling disease has been strengthened by the financial support of individual persons and of several fund-raising organizations concerned specifically with ALS. The British symposium was made possible by a bequest. The research conference in California was sponsored by the Bishop family, founders of the ALS Society of America, which this year has underwritten a workshop on clinical management of ALS, its proceedings also to be published.
Motor Neurone Disease, the British book, is small and has a broad range. It offers some worthwhile clinical observations: "An early presentation of dysphonia due to laryngeal paralysis may be surprisingly acute in onset." It contains Kurland's thoughtful, extended essay on the epidemiology of ALS, and a deliberately irritating