Monday, Mar. 12, 1973

Capsules

> Whether with black coffee or enforced abstinence, sobering up an intoxicated alcoholic is a slow process that usually takes anywhere from eight to 48 hours. Now a team of Lynn, Mass., emergency-room physicians has found a way to do the job faster. Drs. Louis Kunian, James Wasco and Lawrence Hulefeld of Lynn Hospital report in Emergency Medicine that intravenous infusions of fructose, a sugar found in fruit, can sober up a drunk with unusual speed. However the fructose works--the doctors speculate that it may inhibit alcohol's effects on the nervous system --the sugar is undoubtedly efficient. Of 30 alcoholics treated thus far, all but one sobered up in 2% hours or less.

> Visual defects are common among American preschool children; the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness estimates that one child out of every 20 has an eye problem that, if uncorrected, can interfere with his intellectual and psychological development. And frequently the problem is not detected until the child enters school. That unfortunate delay may be avoided if parents use a simple do-it-yourself eye test developed by the N.S.P.B. The child is simply asked to study E-shaped figures on a chart from a distance of 10 ft. If he can tell which way the arms of the E are pointing on a special line, he is probably using his eyes effectively. If he cannot describe the letters, or can read them with one eye but not the other, he should be taken to a doctor for a complete eye examination.

>Ever since American doctors returned from the People's Republic of China with enthusiastic reports on the country's hospitals and clinics, interest in Chinese medicine has increased enormously in the U.S. Doctors at several major U.S. medical centers have organized programs to study acupuncture, the Chinese technique of treating illness and inducing anesthesia by inserting needles at certain points in the body. Politicians, public health officials and hospital administrators are trying to learn more about how the Chinese cope with disease and provide medical care. To help spread the word about Chinese medicine, a group of American and European physicians has decided to publish a journal devoted entirely to the subject. Scheduled to appear twice a year, the American Journal of Chinese Medicine will, according to its editor, Dr. Frederick Kao of the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center, "try to advance the cultural exchange of theories, techniques and attitudes that should promote the development of medical sciences in both East and West."

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