Capsules

P: To prove their own fortitude (and also that their countrymen eat too much), eleven Swedish vegetarians aged 26 to 44 staged a ten-day fasting hike of 330 miles from Goteborg to Stockholm. Encouraged by pep talks from "Nature Doctor" Arne Wingquist, all but two stood the course, sustained by nothing more potent than plain water. One who fell by the wayside was Wingquist himself, on the ninth day. The marchers' average weight loss en route: 17 Ibs.

P: At a World Council for the Welfare of the Blind in Paris, Sweden's Charles Hedkvist sadly reported that postwar dreams of developing a sonar system to help the blind find their way are years short of fulfillment. Guide dogs are too costly for most of the world's blind, so the most widely useful device is still the oldest and simplest--the cane.

P: Pennsylvania State Senator John J. Haluska quit as president of the board at Miners' Hospital in Spangler, Pa., giving the medical staff a clear-cut victory in its fight to keep out the unorthodox Hoxsey treatment for cancer which Haluska championed (TIME, Aug. 9).

P: Noting alarm among their patients over Quintuplet Emilie Dionne's death a fortnight ago after epileptic seizures, U.S. epilepsy experts hastened to issue reassurances: the disorder is rarely fatal, and in four cases out of five the seizures can be staved off or alleviated by drugs.

P: A mystery epidemic struck down children in northern India with 118 deaths reported (24 in Delhi. 50 in Lucknow, others in Benares and Allahabad). Tentative diagnosis: encephalitis. An all-out spraying campaign was launched to destroy sand flies and mosquitoes, which are suspected of carrying the virus.

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