Anti-Radiation

Doctors have no prescription that will prevent somebody from dropping an atom bomb. But they continue to worry about what medicine can do to make atomic bombing less frightful for the victims. Last fortnight, at the Navy's invitation, all kinds of doctors (civilian, Army, Navy and the U.S. Public Health Service) met in Bethesda, Md. for a two-week "indoctrination" course in atomic medicine's latest findings. When the doctors went home, they carried no cheery news with them.

P: If our cities are bombed, said Rear Admiral C. J. Brown, "there will emerge vast numbers of walking people, consisting of women, children and the aged. Thousands of them walking, but a great number, even though they walk, will not live. During the immediately succeeding hours, and the dark days which follow, who will bear the burden of the professional care of the survivors?" He answered his own .question: civilian doctors. The Army doctors will be too busy.

P: Civilian doctors should be organized as medical minutemen, said Dr. Edward L. Bortz, president of the American Medical "Association. Some cities are already making a start; but there should be countrywide organization under a National Emergency Medical Council, set up as an agency of the National SecurityResources Board.

P: Could there be immunization against radiation? Science should investigate the possibility said Colonel Elbert Decoursey, Army pathologist who studied atomic 'bomb victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He did not suggest exposing people to tiny atomic bombs as a way of building up resistance, but he did cite research with animals: rats that have been dehydrated (the amount of water in their bodies reduced) survived longer than other rats .when exposed to radiation; animals whose metabolism was slowed down before exposure also did better. Thousands of lives could be saved, Colonel Decoursey said hopefully (while the other doctors looked politely skeptical), if human resistance to radiation could be increased only 15 to 20%.

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