§ Mr. Elystan Morganasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what amount of money has been specifically allocated by the Government for research into multiple sclerosis;
(2) if money allocated for research connected with multiple sclerosis is to be dedicated to research into multiple sclerosis exclusively or for research into demyelinating diseases generally.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsThe allocation of grant-in-aid between fields of medical research is a matter for the scientific judgment of the Medical Research Council, and the university departments in receipt of Exchequer funds; but I understand that it would at present be neither advantageous nor practicable to conduct research into multiple sclerosis 127W in isolation from investigations into the process of demyelination itself, which is the common characteristic of several diseases, mostly rare, and which consists in the loss of the myelin sheath, the fatty coat of individual nerve fibres in the white matter of the central nervous system.
§ Mr. Elystan Morganasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many official medical units there are in the United Kingdom which conduct research in an attempt to elucidate the aetiology and pathogenesis of the disease of multiple sclerosis.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsI would refer my hon. Friend to the Answer given to him on 21st November last. The project then being conducted at Guy's Hospital Medical School now forms part of the programme of the Medical Research Council's Research Group in Membrane Biology at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School.—[Vol. 736, c.237–8.]