Merciful Mask

Beer, champagne, tight abdominal belts, cotton earplugs soaked in a cocaine substitute, small doses of nitroglycerin, sodium nitrite, bromides, are all things that are recommended by travelers for seasickness.

None of them, however, affords certain relief, and the cause & cure of seasickness remain one of medicine's minor mysteries.

Last week as the British liner Lady Nelson docked in Boston, pier visitors were amazed to see a ship's officer standing on deck, a large rubber muzzle covering his nose, a large rubber doughnut surrounding his mouth, a limp rubber bag hanging on his chest. It was Dr. Richmond Goulden, ship's surgeon, who was modeling an oxygen mask for seasickness, invented by Dr. Walter Meredith Boothby of the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Boothby tried the new invention on four seasick passengers during the Lady Nelson's 30-day trip to British Guiana and back. It gave complete relief to three, partial relief to a fourth.

The merciful mask is held in place by straps fitting around the head, has two hollow tubes starting at each side of the nosepiece and curving clown to the chin, where they join a larger tube which runs to an oxygen bag connected with an oxygen tank. The mask permits a passenger to eat, talk and smoke while he inhales the soothing oxygen. The whole business, explained Dr. Boothby, is not as uncomfortable as it looks.

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