Annual Refresher

The milk company's mechanical cow chewed & chewed; the pretty wax dummy in slacks pumped an exercise bicycle; models in low-cut dresses called attention to anti-allergic cosmetics. The 12,000 doctors attending the 97th annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago last week wandered among such exhibits with an appreciative eye.

The medical midway had been set up on the Navy Pier, which juts nearly a mile out into Lake Michigan. The booths had been prepared by 320 commercial exhibitors (space rented for $3 a square foot); the 185 scientific exhibits had cost the A.M.A. about $24,000 to install.

The doctors, as willing as anybody else to get something for nothing, happily sampled the free soft drinks, milk shakes, caffeine-less coffee, "pure food" cheese, free matches, cigarettes, soap, bicarbonate of soda, arch-supporters. On their way to look over new X-ray machines and operating tables, they paused to stare at the exhibit of the American Physicians Art Association, which included pictures of puppies, naked women and flowers.

With its eye-catching exhibits and its nearly 400 scientific papers, the A.M.A. convention is the only medical meeting that many a busy general practitioner has time to attend. It is his annual refresher course in medicine. He chooses it because it is big, varied and gives him a chance to meet other doctors. At week's end, he returns to his practice feeling up-to-date for another year. Convention highlights:

Infant Diarrhea. Wherever there are a lot of babies in one place, infant diarrhea is likely to break out. Such epidemics have forced the closing of babies' wards in hospitals, swept ships bringing G.I. brides to the U.S. Standard hospital treatment is to give the babies nothing by mouth, feed them by injections. This starvation treatment is all wrong, Dr. Edward Scott O'Keefe of Lynn, Mass. told the doctors at Chicago; it may damage the baby's teeth and bones. Dr. O'Keefe recommends three heaping tablespoons of apple powder every three hours, followed by the regular formula.

Heart Trouble. In a heart attack caused by blocking of the coronary artery, lack of pain is a bad sign, reported Dr. F. Tremaine Billings of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. 'He studied 240 patients, found that 10% felt no pain; of these, 54% died almost immediately. Of the 90% who felt pain (in the chest and through the upper arms), only 20% died immediately.

Auto Trouble. Dr. Fletcher D. Woodward of the University of Virginia Hospital decided that doctors could prescribe safer designs for automobiles: "The only influence of aircraft design apparently so far adopted by automotive engineers is the erroneous one that the aerodynamic principles of a jet-propelled aircraft should be applied to a vehicle whose speed should be limited to 55 miles an hour on the ground." He recommended: airplane "crash struts" to strengthen autos; front bumpers to absorb shocks like planes' landing gears; airplane Plexiglas for windows and windshields; safety belts; crash pads of sponge rubber for the dashboard and the backs of front seats.

Tobacco Trouble. One-fourth of 698 patients with cancer of the mouth treated at Stockholm's Radiumhemmet (Radium Home) could blame tobacco and alcohol, said Dr. Elis Berven. Especially "cancer-encouraging" are the iron pipes that some Swedish women smoke. Equally bad: the habit men have of holding tobacco quids between lips and gums. Five jiggers of straight whiskey a day and "a pint on Saturday to get happy" is enough to irritate the throat, make conditions right for development of cancer. (Dr. Berven does not smoke, but drinks a little wine.)

A Warning. Massachusetts General Hospital's Dr. Maurice Fremont-Smith warned that the cytological (smear) test for cancer is being exploited with danger to the public. "Reliance on a diagnosis for or against cancer submitted by an inexperienced 'cytologist' constitutes malpractice just as surely as does the performance of a major operation by an inadequately equipped surgeon."

A Dilemma. People who have both stomach ulcers and hardening of the arteries are in a tough spot, reported Manhattan's Dr. Milton Plotz. The usual diet for ulcer patients is high in cholesterol, a substance found in animal fats: milk, cream, egg yolks. But there is "considerable evidence" that there is a connection between a high-fat diet and hardening of the arteries. Dr. Plotz suggested that doctors had better play safe with ulcer patients who also have coronary trouble: stick to frequent feedings low in fat.

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