Evening star., 1941-11-08
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. henry.


Has America gone soft?
approximately 80 per cent Of all men
called before draft boards in l9l7-18
were rejected for general military service.
During the past year about 43 per cent
have been rejected, either by local draft
board physicians or by Army induction
boards.
Yet in the quarter century that has
intervened the death rate among men
between 2l and "a years of age has de-
clined approximately one-third. The
death rate is very rough index OF gen.
eral health.
In view of these findings, has the
American reservoir of man power de-
teriorated? 1t is a paradox for which
physicians of the United States Public
Health Service would like to find some
explanation, and the more they study 1t
the more complicated it becomes.
Although facts available at present do
not seem to point that way, there is
the possibility that many have been kept
alive into early manhood by medical
advances who would have. died in child
hood 20 years ago. There are also i'm
proved methods of diagnosis for such
hidden maladies as sub-clinical tubercu-
losis which cause the rejection OF many
who would have been accepted in the
last war.
During 1917-18 per cent of all re-
jections were for tuberculosis. Now the
rate is running close to II per cent.
1t would seem that the disease is about
as prevalent as before, but Public Health
Service statistics show that proportion
ately there are only about half as many
tuberculosis deaths as 20 years ago.
In the last war 16 per cent of rejec-
tions were for venereal diseases. Now this
has been cut down to half of per cent
the brightest side of the whole picture,
say Public Health Service doctors, and
a striking tribute to the campaign car
ried on by Surgeon General Parran.
Reflections for poor teeth constitute
about 20 per cent of the total-about
four times the rate in the first World
War 1t is hard to make comparisons,
however, because dental examinations In
l9l7-18 often were quite superficial and
standards may not have been quite so
severe. 1t is suspected by Public Health
Service physicians, however, that there
has been a considerable increase in
dental defects because of poor diets
during the depression and the fact that
parents could not afford to send their
children to dentists.
nf
lection are eye defects-l37-cardl
vascular Diseases probably aftermaths
of rheumatic fever in childhood, which
account for l06 of those who are turned
away. The latter definitely have in
creased in all age groups and become the
leading cause of death in persons of mid
die age.
One note of encouragement, it is
pointed out. is the fact that only % per
cent of registrants are classified as unflt
for any military service. Fifteen per
cent are set aside as papable of limited
service, especially if such things as oe-
fective teeth are repaired. In the first
World War the majority of this IS per
cent might have been taken into the
Army. Also, Public Health Service re-
ports point out, 80 per cent are thrown
out by draft board physicians and II
per cent at Army induction centers
where all the artifices of modern dag
nosis, many of them unknown 20 years
ago, are brought into play.
Generally speaking, Public Health
Service physicians believe the country
may have grown just little softer
between the two wars. But, they insist.
this is almost inexcusable. The first
World War draft was the first oppor-
tunity the country had to obtain cross
section picture of the national health.
Physical examinations in both the Civil
and Spanish Wars had either been nom
existent or very superficial The country
was shocked at the picture. There has
been an intensive drive for child health
in every State in the Union ever since.
But efforts seem to have been confined
to periodic physical check-ups in schools.
For the most part school physicians
simply notified parents and forgot about
it. Apparently the parents themselves,
for the most part, did nothing.
The United States, says recent PuD-
lie Health Service statement has had
enemies within her borders which have
put AZ per cent of her young men out
Of action without shot being fired"
Sulfa vanishing cream is the latest
beauty aid"
Four Johns Hopkins University phy-
sicians, they have reported to the
American Medical Association, are ex-
perimenting with preparation of the
relatively new sulfathiazole mixed in a
cold cream preparation for treatment OF
disfguring eruptions on the face and
body.
The application is the same as would
be that of any other cold cream.
Almost universal among boys and girls
during adolescence is some degree of the
condition known as acne. 1t generally
has been treated by prescribed diets and
often it is quite resistant to any remedy.
Drs. Edmund L. Keeney, Richard H.
Pembroke, Ferdinand E. Chatard and
James M. Ziegler, they report, expert
mented with the new vanishing cream on
20 nurses, aged 16 to 81, whose faces
had been disfigured by acne to some
degree for from one to five years.
There were no restrictions in diet and