Capsules

P:Psychiatrist William C. Menninger gave this prescription for a graceful old age: begin preparing for it in childhood. The ability to adjust happily to other people is established in youngsters, often for the rest of their lives.

P:Mrs. Joseph L. McAndrew, 38, a slender housewife from Watch Hill, R.I., had her eleventh successful Caesarean operation (a world record, A.M.A. archives indicated) in 14 years of marriage. Ten children are living; one was killed in an auto accident.

P:Voluntary health-insurance plans face bankruptcy or drastic cutbacks unless current abuses are stopped, said incoming President John R. Thompson Jr. of the Tennessee State Medical Association. He charged: patients seek more benefits than the plans are designed to provide, and doctors abet them.

P: After going hungry for five days, male dogs have a striking increase in fertility, Johns Hopkins researchers reported. This jibes with nature's way (seals and walruses do not eat before mating), but conflicts with animal-husbandry practice, which overfeeds beasts at stud. Said Dr. W. Horsley Gantt: "I see no reason to think the principle would not also apply to humans."

P: After four months of life, the two-headed offspring of Cecil and Margaret Hartley (TIME, Jan. 4) died in Washington, Ind. of a respiratory infection. Said the father: "I don't understand why God didn't take them away at the start."

P:Aluminum foil did not work well as a dressing for burns despite the early hopes of Dr. Alfred W. Farmer (TIME, Aug. 30, 1948), but he has found something simpler and more effective: dusting the burn with fine aluminum powder. It is easier to apply than pressure dressings, leaves a cleaner edge around the healing area, and is more comfortable for patients.

P:Dentistry is in danger of becoming as overspecialized as medicine, complained the Chicago Dental Society, largely because "a specialty and high fees have become synonymous." To senior dental students the most alluring specialty is orthodontia, which, they believe, "has a halo of pure gold around it."

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