Capsules

P: At the present rate, one out of every twelve children born in the U.S. is destined to spend some part of his life in a mental hospital, Psychiatrist Francis J. Braceland of Hartford, Conn, reported to the Hoover Commission. State mental hospitals have only three-fourths of the attendants they need, half the doctors and one-fourth of the graduate nurses.

P: Ulcer victims who swill milk and assorted alkalies can do themselves more harm than good; Dr. Edward Kessler of Albany, N.Y. has seen three patients in one year who were petrifying themselves by clogging their kidneys with excess calcium. Other doctors have reported seven deaths. The danger to life increases with the duration and degree of the self-medication, especially with sodium bicarbonate and its proprietary relatives.

P: One of the stubbornest disorders to treat is painter's colic--lead poisoning. Two Alabama researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine that they have treated 19 cases easily and successfully with a trick salt called disodium calcium versenate. Lead replaces the calcium and is expelled in the urine.

P: After five months' study of Deborah Marie and Christine Mary Andrews, joined at the tops of their heads (TIME, Oct. 18), doctors at Chicago's Mercy Hospital decided to begin plastic surgery this week, with the actual separation tentatively timed for October. Superficially the girls' case resembles the famed Brodie twins (TIME, Dec. 29, 1952 et seq.), but doctors are confident that they do not share any major blood vessels, so both have a good chance of survival.

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