The appointment of an Epilepsy Commission to start a city-wide campaign against this disease was announced yesterday by the Harvard Medical School. The Commission, as appointed by the Corporation of Harvard University, contains the following members:

Robert Amory '06, of Boston, Dr. Walter Bradford Cannon '96 of Boston, Dr. Stanley Cobb '10 of Boston, Dr. Bronson Crothers '05 of Cambridge, Ralph Lowell '12 of Boston, and Dr. Fritz Bradley Talbot '00 of Boston, Charles Francis Adams '88 of Boston is acting as treasurer.

Experiments To Start Soon

Funds are now being collected by the Commission, and research and experiment will begin shortly at the Medical School and various Boston Hospitals in an attempt to stamp out a disease which now has 390,000 victims in the United States.

For over five years work has been carried out in experimenting on cures of epilepsy at the Harvard Medical School. Massachusetts General Hospital, Children's Hospital, and at the Boston City Hospital. The appointment of the Harvard Epilepsy Commission makes possible a coordination and continuity of the work.

"No valuable results can be expected from research of this kind unless it is carried on for years", Dr. Cobb stated. "Therefore the promotion of a permanent commission is a most important advance. Funds must be raised to carry on the investigations. At present about $10,000 a year is needed, but if generous support is given the scope of the work can be enlarged greatly.

"This commission has been appointed to promote a continuous study of the convulsive disorders over a period of years. The term epilepsy is used for brevity, but it has been demonstrated in recent years that epilepsy is not a disease--it is a type of reaction of the human body to different abnormal stimulations: it has various causes. Thus the field of study must be broadened to include the convulsions of childhood, the eclampsia of pregnancy, uremia, asphyxia and other allied conditions. When these are all better understood there will be more chance of helping the chronic sufferer--the epileptic.

"During the last few years advances in treatment have been made. Chief among them is the discovery that acidosis tends to stop convulsions. Many children have been completely relieved, by the practical application through diet of this chemical knowledge; in adults the diet is seldom of avail. It is obvious that the processes underlying these phenomena are not completely understood, and it is hoped that if a more complete understanding of them is obtained that dietary treatment may be more universally successful.