Harding Scored

Herewith are excerpts from letters come to the desks of the editors during the past week. They are selected primarily for the information they contain either supplementary to, or corrective of, news previously published in TIME.

Harding Scored

TIME Central Lake, Mich.

New York, N. Y. June 15, 1925.

Sirs:

Despite your weariness of comments on Dr. George T. Harding and diabetes (TIME, June 15, Page 16), I must speak.

It is feared that the good doctor's words have been "twisted by knaves, to make a trap for fools." As you quote him from the esteemed columns of virtue's magazine [Physical Culture], he appears to state that he had diabetes, repudiated the specialists lest they might use insulin, cured himself by quitting meat. Insulin, "favored by A. M. A.," he scorned because it merely alleviates, does not get at the root of the trouble.

Yet, to judge from the dear man's portrait, he does not scorn the razor, even though it merely alleviates his appearance and fails to reach the roots of his beard.

As for the meatless diet in diabetes, probably nowhere on earth is that carried nearer perfection than at Battle Creek Sanitarium. Yet they, too, have use insulin on the more severe cases.

The pathetic situation is that thousands who do need insulin are sliding into too eager graves without it, due to their own indifference, the apparent complexity of the treatment and by ignorant fears of insulin and hospital, as adroitly fostered by this shameless propaganda to which the good names of both Harding and TIME have unwittingly lent themselves.

The least you can do, it would seem, is to give the rebuttal equal prominence with the original sin, not hiding it in a miscellany of fine-print correspondence.

It is not argument. So far as your in fluence goes, it is life and death for the wavering diabetic.

Don H. DUFFIE, M.D.

TIME Toledo, Ohio

New York, N. Y. June 15, 1925.

Sirs:

To read that Dr. George T. Harding "expressed his scorn for the insulin treatment" was a decided surprise. This coming from a man and a physician, such as Dr. Harding, will only do harm.

Thousands of people the world over have been benefited by insulin, for diabetes. In the body there is an organ called the pancreas. In this organ there are cells called "islands of Langerhans." These secrete a fluid (now called insulin) that digests sugar. When these cells are destroyed or partly destroyed, their output is lessened. All the sugars, therefore, cannot be digested, with the result that free sugar circulates in the body, and a condition called diabetes presents itself. That is why diabetics are told to eliminate sugars from their diets.

Insulin is prepared from animals (their islands of Langerhans) and injected into humans who have none of their own. Thus their sugars are digested and they become sugar free.

The argument that this must be kept up is true in some cases, because, when these cells or part of them are totally destroyed, they will never come back, any more than a finger that is cut off will grow back. Luckily, the majority of cases are not of this last type.

The discovery of insulin has been one of the great medical achievements, and thousands of lives have been prolonged because of it.

N. J. SEYBOLD, M.D.

Buckeyes

TIME Cincinnati, Ohio.

New York, N. Y. June 18, 1925.

Sirs:

In your issue of June 15, Page 5, you quote Mr. Davey as not knowing of any buckeye trees in the state of Ohio. Surely some mistake has been made. Here in southern Ohio, the buckeye is one of our most common--I mean numerous--foresttrees. It grows everywhere. I have six in my back garden. I am confident that, in an afternoon's automobile ride around the Cincinnati hills, Mr. Davey or anyone else who knows trees could pick out 100 buckeyes. In the spring, they are the first of the trees to put forth their leaves and lovely flowers, and it is a great sight here to see these radiant green trees standing in the forest that is otherwise dull and colorless.

But the way to start a buckeye is to plant the seed. It is a difficult tree to transplant. And if the Ohio Society of New York wishes--and it is a praiseworthy wish--to plant a grove of buckeyes on Long Island, I shall be glad this fall, to send them a peck of buckeye seeds--buckeyes we call them.

JAMES A. GREEN.

Reads Trash?

TIME Holbrook, Ariz.

New York, N. Y. June 10, 1925.

Sirs:

My folks say that I haven't a thought in my head worth while and all I read is trash. But, on top of all that, I do read TIME and enjoy it immensely.

I am an Eastern high-school girl and am spending a short time with my family in the West. When we were in the East, we subscribed for TIME, and on coming out here had the subscription continued. It is the only paper of its kind that I read.

MILDRED MILES.

Keenly Etched

TIME San Francisco, Calif.

New York, N. Y. June12, 1925

Sirs:

Your magazine is quite wonderful. Never have I read news events so delicately, so keenly etched. You must know that your style is profoundly affecting the more up-and-coming newspapers of the country. I have introduced it to several City Editors and hard-pressed rewrite men, then joyed at the rejuvenation of their works.

You were terrible in a recent number; one story told of a "riot of gorgeous color." Please look to the Coast, San Francisco, once in a while.

CARL HELM.

"Superfluous"

TIME Los Angeles, Calif.

New York, N.Y. Mar. 4, 1925.

Sirs:

I do not see why you do not cut out the table of contents as it is superfluous--every subscriber reading the magazine from cover to cover--and in this manner you would have that much additional space for news.

J. C. WHEELER.

"Won't Be Missed"

TIME Cristobal, C. Z.

New York, N. Y. June 9, 1925.

Sirs:

The suggestion of Subscriber "Monsieur Beaucaire" (issue of June 8) that TIME start a question column has my unqualified approval. If, as you say, lack of room prevents, cut out "Point with Pride" and "View with Alarm" columns. They will never be missed. I find TIME fine.

A. A. DOYLE.

Kiang

TIME 45 Park Ave., New York

New York, N. Y. June 20, 1925

Sirs:

Your articles and the style of presentation are both excellent, I think, but I am wondering about the correctness of "Yangtszekiang River" several times used in TIME, June 22, Page 13, CHINA. Doesn't Kiang mean river? If not, the dictionaries seem to be wrong.

WALDO S. REED.

Kiang means river. Subscriber Reed is right. As soon speak of a fox-terrier dog or a cup of demi-tasse.--ED.