Capsules

The U.S. Public Health Service wound up its study of the Cutter vaccine "incident" (TIME, Sept. 5) with a report that has now found live polio virus of the most dangerous strain (Mahoney, of Type I) in all six of the suspected batches of vaccine; also, Type II was found in one lot and Type III in two more. Of the 401,000 vaccinated with Cutter material, 79 got polio; 90 others were infected by contact with Cutter-vaccinated children.

P:The Association of Military Surgeons gave the 1955 Gorgas Medal* for distinguished service to Colonel Victor A. Byrnes of the U.S. Air Force Medical Service. Ophthalmologist Byrnes has just reported that even an old-fashioned A-bomb set off at night can cause blindness in unprotected eyes 40 miles away by boiling" the liquid in the retina. Strangely, the injury might be painless.

P:To help physicians detect rheumatoid arthritis in its earliest stages and thus treat it more effectively, Connecticut's Grace-New Haven Hospital invited doctors to submit blood samples from suspected victims. Said the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation: A test developed in 1947, then only 50% accurate, has now been simplified and refined to 90% accuracy. Basis of the test: for an as yet unknown reason, mixing blood from an arthritic patient with specially treated sheep blood causes the sheep-blood cells to clump.

*Named for Army Surgeon William Gorgas (1854-1920), who fought yellow fever in the Panama Canal Zone.

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