Document YDmnjyYoR85m4B3rR1mpMvDeE

iHfcJPlCf A l' The Cold-Tablet War The government's fight against the Antihistamine "cold cures" took a surprise turn tins week. .' In preparing for "cold*<aire" hearings (Cleveland, May 15), the Federal Trade Commission had lined up several power ful witnesses to prove the advertising of Annhist (Nepera Chemical Company) and Resistub (Bristol-Myers) "false and misleading." Resislab clnimed to "kill colds in one day ... stop colds fast." Anahist declared that "in a clinical ex periment by the U. S. Navy Mediral Corps, results were amazing ... many colds were literally nipped in the hud." In Cleveland, the FTC will listen to doctors, rounded up by Nepera and Bristol-Myers, who will extol the benefits of the products. Anahist, for instance, says that it has records of 12.000.000 tablets prescribed in twenty months by doctors, and hundreds of medical wit nesses to prove its claims. ' In rebuttal, later in Washington, the FTC will present Dr. Norman Topping, famous cold expert of the United States Public Health Snrvirv* tn nv fha* colds are caused by viruses. Since uuttlusla- mincs do not touch a varus, they cannot possibly prevent, check, or cure a cold. The FTC's prize witness will he a rep resentative of the office of the Navy Surgeon General, who will disclaim any naval connection with tests on Anahist. The Navy will assert that Capt. John M. Brewster of the Great Lakes Naval Training Center conducted Anahist tests on his own, and the Navy in no way endorses his work. Small Studies * Air-polluKon problems, some serious, some minor nuisances, name up for dis cussion this week in Washington when 500 engineers gathered for a govern ment-sponsored conference. Only about one half of the country's "offensive" industries practice odor con trol, Carey P. McCord of Detroit's Conservancy Laboratory fold the assem bly. The worst offenders arc: plants processing animal, fish, or vegetable products; strap, paper, and chemical mills, and oil refineries. Among the most effective deodorizn- tion methods, as listed by William H. Witboridge, ventilating consultant of General Motors. Detroit, arc: Combustion. Burning refuse or gases at 1,200 to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. Marking one smell with another. This doesn't always work because part of tbc public always thinks the cure is worse j than the original smell. . . . Running offending base .materials through carbon or some other chemical , to "wash" out the smell. The odoriferous fluids then may be drained into a sewage disposal plant. - Condensation. Boiling refuse in huge vats in sealed rooms, condensing offend ing fluids, and then dumping them into sewage systems. . Heat. Some industries have I'ncrea.vefl the heat of their smelly gases so they will shoot up the smokestack faster and rise higher into the atmosphere. But tricky weather conditions at times toss the nasty- gaseous smells back on the community. Most people believe that if air smells bad, it must be injurious to the health. Odors may warn of danger, visiting doc tors told the engineers, but polluted air which does not offend sometimes may be more harmful tlmn smellier fumes. Damage to the tissues of the throat and lungs may be so gradual (hat it is not recognized by the people affected- Only through extreme outbreaks, such as the Donoru, Pa., disaster in October 1948, when twenty persons died and <ome G.000 were made ill fiom air contamina tion, is public attention drawn to the mass danger. ' Studies conducted by the United States Public Health Service now point to airborne particles as the cause of some forms of cancer and respiratory ailments. Dr. W. C. Hueper of the National Can cer Institute. Brlhesda. Md., referred specifically to air pollution with asbestos, selenium, beryllium, arsenic, and chro mates as the probable cause of increased lung and respiratory tract cancer. Dr. Marion B. Sulzberger, director of New York University Hospital (Belle- woe), declared that constant and repented exposure to certain ntr contami nants, such as benzene, chlorine, tetra ethyl lead, DDT, arsenic, mercury, naphtha, and turpentine, may produce precnnccrous warty growths and inflam matory skin diseases. '."tewUerk. Mn> IS, 1950 W* . ... .*, ` '.y'_ ' Hc Saved Women In die field of women's diseases, the nineteenth-century doctor literally worked in the dark. Wocxleuts of the period show a female patient stretched on the examining table, not only fully clothed but wearing a hat and gloves. From waist to feet she is draped in a sheet tinder which the unseeing physi cian extends his groping hands to solve the mystery of her nearly always incur able ailment. In Europe and in the United Stales, a few pioneer surgeons had already r\]x*rimented with awkward eighteenthcentury devices for treating the complex female tract. Then in 1S45, from Mont gomery, Ala., came Di. J. Marion Sims, with his extraordinary skill and cunningly devised instruments for repairing the rnvages of childbearing. Out of Sims's med ical triumphs, errors, and hospital squabbles, the modern specialty of surgi cal gynecology was born. Sims's personal story, phis a colorful history of his times, is now told by the . 80-year-old Alabama internist. Dr. Scale Harris in "Women's Surgeon,"* a book published last week. In 1845 Dr. Sims abended a 17-ycarold Negro slave girl. Anarcha, who had lost control of her bladder and rectum after childbirth. In medical hooks and articles, Sims had rear! of this hopeless condition, known as vesicovaginal fistula, or rupture of the bladder, but lie had never seen it in his practice. A month later Dr. Sims was called to treat another Negro slave girl. Betsy, for the same im-mable complaint. Then tin-'".* months later, he had his third case of *Wo'rf!K> SmcioK, Mir Ufr Slry f I. $lm<. liv Sralr llnrrli.. M )). <.12 Mavmitlnn. ?5. ' rm