Blood Pressure: 10-c-

To a physician a person's blood pressure is only one of several physiological facts needed for making an intelligent diagnosis. The physician measures the blood pressure by wrapping around the patient's upper arm a hollow rubber cuff to which is connected a graduated column of mercury. Applying a stethoscope over an artery in the forearm, the doctor pumps air into the hollow cuff until it stops circulation. At this instant the air pressure in the cuff equals the maximum (systolic) blood pressure in the arteries of the arm, and the doctor hears a sharp blowing sound in his stethoscope. Whatever figure the sphygmomanometer gauge shows at that instant is the patient's systolic pressure.

Normal blood pressure for a healthy individual is roughly his age plus 100. It continually varies--lower in sleep and menstruation, higher after meals, baths, in anger, in pregnancy. Prolonged high blood pressure of 180 to 200 or low pressure of 60 to 75 are positive signs of disease somewhere in the system. To most people their blood pressure figure, without explanation, has no more meaning than the count of the white cells in their blood stream, or the specific gravity of their urine. Nonetheless the numbers indicating specific gravity, blood count or blood pressure do fascinate many people, as a shrewd amusement park concessionaire named Barnet Males has discovered to his own profit.

Last week at Coney Island Barnet Males was in trouble with the law for pandering to the common interest in blood pressure. On the Boardwalk he set up a sphygmomanometer including a regular cuff and bulb. An overlarge dial was blatantly labeled "Blood Pressure Indicator for SYSTOLIC PRESSURE." For 10-c- passers-by were invited to "READ YOUR OWN BLOOD PRESSURE."* To protect himself from the serious charge of practicing medicine without a license, Concessionaire Males set up big signs reading: "Attendant is forbidden to diagnose, prescribe or treat under any circumstances. The only purpose of this (non-stethoscope) machine is to let you read your own blood pressure, and nothing else. For a true medical interpretation you are referred to your Family Doctor. . . ." A State medical inspector, egged on by irate doctors, ordered Barnet Males to get himself and machine off the Boardwalk. Mr. Males dodged around to the entrance of Coney Island's Luna Park, sued to restrain the police from bothering him, intransigently placed this advertisement in Billboard, trade sheet of the amusement business:

"BLOOD PRESSURE. Coin Machines. Original, patented. The biggest hit of the year. Hundreds now on display. Ideal for resorts, amusement centers, etc. Operated with or without an attendant. Income as much as $150 per week. Now at $39.50. Send for illustrated circular. . ."

*Also in trouble with the law at Coney Island last week was one Bernard Roth for wearing the white uniform and stethoscope of a hospital interne. Chased away for pretending to be a doctor, he claimed that he simply wanted to be able to help a life-saving crew in case of accident.

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