Capsules

In scores of meetings staged by the A.M.A. or satellite organizations in Atlantic City last week, doctors also:

P:Endorsed "the practice of artificial insemination by a donor (as distinct from the husband) for childless couples provided that "it is in harmony with the beliefs of the couple and the doctor." Members of the American Society for the Study of Sterility had previously avoided taking such a policy stand, although most (excluding Roman Catholics) use the technique freely. Now they voted, 79 to 8, that it is "a completely ethical, moral and desirable form of medical therapy."

P:Hauled down the flag of strict ethical principle by which the A.M.A. had long sought to keep doctors (with rare and regulated exceptions) from owning drugstores or peddling pills, trusses, crutches or spectacles; adopted in its place (by vote of A.M.A.'s House of Delegates) a much more flexible rule: "It is not unethical for a physician to prescribe or supply drugs, remedies or appliances as long as there is no exploitation of the patient."

P:Heard a report on a way to relieve man's most atrocious pain by injecting hot water into a bundle of nerves behind the forehead. Victims of tic douloureux, an excruciating form of neuralgia, said Philadelphia's Neurosurgeon J. Rudolph Jaeger, are often too feeble for radical surgery, and lose their faith in doctors because most medical treatments give only short-lived relief. Under light general anesthesia, a needle is pushed through the cheek to the base of the skull, the surgeon following it by X ray. When it hits the Gasserian ganglion, he injects scalding water (158DEGF.), which kills the sensory nerves. Dr. Jaeger has had good results in 27 of 32 tic victims, and some success with facial cancer patients.

P:Heard, on the first birthday of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs, that there are four heart-lung machines and about 90 artificial kidneys now in use in the U.S. to tide patients over crises in surgery or systemic poisoning. President Willem J. Kolff of Cleveland showed a disposable artificial kidney made from beer cans, window screening and sausage casing. Cost: about $15.

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