The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-09-09
Your Health

unpalatable. Sometimes 1t was
done also to get drugs into the
DR.. Clendening will answer
questions of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
system without the patients
knowing il, as when drops were
put in the drunkard's coffee.
Nothing outweighs the danger
Of the practice which leads to in
discriminate dosing. Everybody
regards ordinary food as harmless
and eats as much as he likes. II
the food contains drug, he may
obtain more than he needs. Drugs
should be measured in doses. That
is what the druggists scales are
for.
These remarks are suggested by
a newspaper article which l read
today which states that the new
drug, sulfanilamide, is being put
in gumdrops and candy.
sun dnlldmluc series
Now these new drugs Of the sui
fanilamide series have received a
great send-off, mostly by news
paper writers who have never
made a diagnosis in their lives.
They are undoubtedly very valu-
able drugs but they are also un-
doubtedly very dangerous drugs
and have decidedly toxic effects.
We do not know, by any means,
all about what effects they have
when contaminated with other
substances.
We had hardly gotten over the
shock of the deaths which were
caused by a form of elixir Of sui
Panhandle when, on March %, we
were told by the press and over
the radio that a considerable
amount of sulfathiazole had been
contaminated with luminal by a
well-known drug firm. This latter
incident apparently has not caused
any deaths.
But the idea of putting a drug
of this kind. which causes skin
eruptions and many other serious
complications, in candy is an ex-
tremely bad practice. The Federal
Food and Drug Administration
has listed a number Of drugs that
are dangerous if consumed other
than on expert advice and under
constant supervision. Certainly
this recommendation should deter
anybody from putting these drugs
in candy.
Mild Remedies Better
In the enthusiasm for the use
of sulfanilamide, it is used in all
sorts of minor conditions with the
result that l have personally seen
many patients who were sicker
from the treatment than they
were from the original disease.
/ have seen mild cases Of sore
throat called "strep sore throat"
soaked with sulfaniiamide, as we'll
as mild cases of scarlet fever, and
even common colds, which would
do much better on old-fashioned
mild remedies and probably would
get better more completely and
more promptly than with the new
and symptom-producing drugs.
The present situation is fraught
with interest. On the one hand
we find cigarette manufacturers
promising US that nicotine is be-
ing taken out of their cigarettes,
and on the other hand we are
asked to admire the fact that the
millers are putting nicotine acid
in bread.
1t is quite true that nicotine
acid, although a derivative of nico-
tine, hasn't the same pharmaco-
logical reactions, but also | do not
know anybody who knows exactly
what the archaeological reac-
tons of nicotine acid are. II is
said 10 be cumulative in its action
and yet it is put in bread. It is
said that it is put in in very small
amounts, and at the same time we
are told that only amounts ten to
twenty times as much as one
would get in a serving Of bread
are Of any value in preventing
pellagra.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Constant Reader: please tell
me if a blind person could have
an eye removed and replaced by
an eye which party with sight is
willing TO offer? Would restora-
ton Of partial sight TO the blind
person be assured with any de-
gree Of certainty"
Answer No, because CRAFTS Of
any organ or tissue from one per-
son TO another practically never
take. The only gratis which are
calculated to take are homologous
"A tissue taken from the same
persons body, such as a skin graft
or a bone graft. In case Of skin
graft, the skin is removed from
an unaffected part Of the patients
own body and grated on to an
other part. In a bone graft, for
instance Of the spine, a bone is
taken from the leg bone Of the
same patient and put into his own
spine. Besides, the eye is such a
complex organ that it would be