Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-13
BY ROBERT ID. POTTER,
science Editor, The American Weekly

-ATTOOING is coming back, not n the
garish form Of the sdeshow freak with
everything from the Statue of Liberty
TO Cape Horn indelibly outlined on his body,
but as a fe-saving measure for unconscious
patients picked up at accident or found
unconscious on the streets
At the staid and formal meetings of the
doctors House of Delegates Of the American
Medical Association, in Cleveland a resolu-
ton was proposed which would set up a COM
mttee 10 study the need for scientific tat
toong on the bodies Of people suffering from
diabetes epilepsy, serum sensitivity and rare
blood types
What is desired and needed is some quick
and ready way of distinguishing these people
when they are found unconscious so that
their collapse into coma will not be mistaken
for drunkenness. and so that they will land
in a hospital instead of in a Jail.
Already reports have il that number
of perfectly well people in the nation have
had their Social Security number tattoocd on
their bodies.
Maybe the day will come when TO the
Social Security number will be added some
code designation like D4S or f. that would
mean little to a layman but much TO a
physician.
D4s might mean in code that the patient
was a dabctic, had type 4 blood and was
sensitive TO serum shock
f might mean that the patient was
epileptic and had type blood
Everyone would have at least single
number designation from ] TO depending on
which type Of blood group he possessed
The idea Of tattoong the body is an ex-
tremely old one and everyone remembers the
tattooed lady in the circus sideshow and the
bewitChng female figures that sailors Of the
old school used to have needed into their
bullying biccps.
But the new medical idea is not for amuse-
ment but the preservation OF life, for the
simple information that "A code like D4S might
convey well may save life in a time Of crisis.
In fact it was the tragic railroad accident
at Little Falls. ~ Y, in April 1910, where 81
people were killed which was directly respon-
sible for the formal recognition Of the problem
by the doctors association.
In Cleveland the A. NJ A. received the
following resolution proposed by the Medical
Society Of the State of New York.
Whereas on the occasion Of train wreck
at Little Falls n Y in April 1910 number
of injured were brought in unconscious and,
Whereas, in making tests 10 determine
serum sensitivity before administering tetanus
antitoxin, two cases were found, and
Whereas, il has been suggested that
tattoo code other means Of identification
- showing serum sensitivity might be devised 10
safeguard unconscious accident patients, and
Whereas the Medical Society Of the state
Of New York considers the subject deserving
of national consideration
Therefore, be IL resolved
That committee Of the A. NJ A. study
this question and report to this House Cof
Delegates in 1912"
The Reference Committee OF the a. NJ A.
said it had considered the resolution at length
and that the plan had merit and deserved fur
Their study. The Committee added, too, that
the idea could be carried over TO include
diabetes, epileptics and other persons with
equally strange ailments whose symptoms
often are mistaken. Until next year the tat
tooing suggestion will lie on the lap of the
Council of Scientific Assembly.
Nearly every doctor could cite case after
case in his practice where information Of
the kind the tattoo code would contain
would have helped immensely in rendering
prompt service TO some unconscious patient.
BY no means rare in the nation are people
4 with diabetes men and women alike, who can
tell Of night spent in Jail drunk just
because they had gone into a diabetic coma
and had been picked up unconscious by the
police who unknowingly carted them off in the
Black Maria.
Patients with diabetes. is well known.
live life that is balanced between two kinds
of death; death from lack of sugar in their
blood and too much sugar in the blood
With diabetes the pancreas fails TO sccrete
a sufficient amount Of insulin 10 utilize the