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NAVY tackles Mt. Everest

In an epochal 30-day experiment the Navy “climbed” two men “higher” than Mt. Everest—without oxygen.

By CAPT. J. H. KORB, U.S.. Navy Medical Corps, as told to Jamea Kevin Miller

SCIENCE now has proved that flyers and mountain climbers can reach altitudes of almost six miles, remain normal and alert, and come away none the worse for wear—without supplemental oxygen.

It is only necessary that they accustom themselves gradually to the decreasing pressures and dwindling oxygen.
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Are Patent Medicines Dangerous?

BY ROBERT L. HEILBRONER

Down in Washington. D.C., a constant, unobtrusive cold war is being waged by three organizations—the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and a quiet institution known as The Proprietary Association.

These three groups are vigilantly protecting the consumer against foods, drugs, and cosmetics that are adulterated, or labeled or advertised with false or misleading statements.

They also do occasional battle with the remnants of the once-famous quack-medicine makers, known to some as “the patent-medicine industry.” They were fugitives from justice, with a record both long and nauseating. Theirs was at best a cold-blooded operation built on the principle that there is no buck so easy to wangle as the buck of a person in pain.
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HERE’S AN EYE OPENER FOR YOU!

THE Electrical Show recently held in the Grand Central Palace, New York City, presented showings of several very novel electrical devices. One of the most practical inventions was a magnetic instrument for removing metallic particles from the human eye.

The human optic is very delicate and must be freed from any bit of lodged matter at once. If chips are allowed to remain within the eyelid they work into the eye-ball and nearly always cause blindness.

This machine has at last answered the cry for a painless method of removing metallic deposits from the eye easily.

First-Aid Booth

THE Germans have designed a street first-aid booth which seems to have everything. Well, practically everything.

First, naturally, there’s a first-aid kit and a folding stretcher on wheels. This is so light it can be pushed by a child. Then, there’s a public telephone and a fire alarm. For the policeman on beat, there’s a special wire to the station and on the wall is a mirror for last-minute grooming. On top of the booth is an illuminated clock and a blue light which blinks if somebody wants a policeman.

If plumbing facilities had been available there’d probably be a kitchen sink, too.

If Ruptured…

LET ME SEND YOU A FREE SAMPLE OF A STRANGE AIR-BREATHING, FLESH-SOFT SUBSTANCE THAT IS USED IN, A DEVICE THAT HAS ENDED TRUSS TORTURE. FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, BE MODERN! DON’T WEAR DIRTY LEG STRAPS, LEATHER PADS, HARD RUBBER CUSHIONS OR SEVERELY STRAPPED BELTS ANY MORE. Read the rest of this entry »

Have Your Next Tooth Filled Electrically!

NEXT year when you go to a dentist to have a tooth filled he may connect the cavity up to a small dynamo and fill your tooth electrolytically with gold or silver, in the same way that metal articles are gold or silver-plated.

Dentists are working along these lines because the prevailing method of making gold inlays involves the use of wax impressions, which frequently are slightly inaccurate, leaving unfilled pockets in the tooth as a source of future trouble. Cavities would be coated with chemically pure graphite as an electric conductor, filled with an electrolytic liquid bearing a solution of a gold salt, and the current turned on to deposit a perfect filling in the tooth.

Brain Waves Are Measured with Radio Amplifier

With an ordinary radio set for an amplifier, a young scientist at London is measuring brain waves. A fairly regular electrical wave emanates from the human brain during normal thought, but the waves diminish during sleep. The intensity of the waves is measured on an electric meter, enabling research men to study the relative intensity of thought processes.

It’s telemedicine! Well, sort of.

DOCTOR BY RADIO

DR. GUIDO GUIDA, 60, founder and unpaid head of Rome’s International Radio Medical Center has treated patients via radio from his own home for 17 years. Career began when childhood friend died at sea. Italian government recently assigned six Naval operators to aid him.

Alcohol No Danger to Kidneys
THE traditional idea that alcohol is bad for the kidneys, the heart and arteries, is exploded by experts of the American Medical Association. If alcohol injures these organs traces of these injuries should be found in the bodies of drunkards at the post-mortem examinations. Instead of this the evidence is that the hearts and kidneys of drunkards are better than the average condition.

Bee Sting Makes Youth Human Film

WITH a skin as sensitive as a photographic film, Robert J. West sunburns severely after a few minutes exposure to sunlight. In an effort to diagnose his own ailment he has switched his studies in the University of California to a course of physiology.

No part of his body is immune in its reaction to sunlight; exposed for a period of three minutes, his skin crisps and forms painful blisters. Consequently, when in the open, he either muffles himself in a heavy overcoat and pulls his hat low over his eyes, or he insulates himself with a covering of red, sun-resistant Cellophane.
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New Instrument Makes Eye Muscles Stronger

Although it might well be some particularly avid photographic fan having quite a bit of difficulty focusing his candid camera, the odd photograph above actually shows a patient strengthening his eyes with the aid of a new optical instrument developed recently by scientists attached to the research staff of the American Optical Company, in South-bridge, Mass. Read the rest of this entry »

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Science Transplants Babies

BY LESTER DAVID

The embryo conceived by one mother has been removed from her womb, stored by refrigeration, then transplanted to another mother for normal birth. Mother’s name Is “Mrs. Rabbit”—some day it might be Mrs. Jones.

IF YOU could mate a man and a woman—could let the embryo get just a start, then transfer it to the body of another woman to complete its prenatal growth and be born—that would start a revolution in human genetics, wouldn’t it!

It’s just been done with rabbits.

It certainly will be done next with cattle.

And just as certainly it will some day be possible with human beings!
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