Evening star., 1941-06-03
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.

CLEVELAND, June 3.-When you
burn your finger a blister forms.
This is primarily what kills YOU
If the burned area on the body is
sufficiently large. The watery fluid
inside the blister is blood plasma-
that Is, blood without its red and
while cells. Ordinarily it is kept
in perfect balance throughout the
body. A severe burn, a blow, or
freezing, Injuries the minute capil-
laries through which the plasma
flows and it escapes through them.
More flows in to offset the loss and
escapes ir turn. Eventually the
entire supply is so depleted that
the victim dies of shock.
Every year about 5000 persons in
the United States die of burns. At
least 1000 of these die from loss
of plasma and many of them might
be saved. In the present war burns
constitute some of the most fire.
quent fatal injuries, especially in
the Navy.
This new concept of burns was
demonstrated before the American
Medical Association here today by
DR.. Henery NJ Harkins, Detroit
surgeon, who has specialized in
plasma transfusions.
Tannic Acid Used in Past.
Treatment of severe burns in the
past has consisted of applying some
lotion-chiefly tannic acid. This has
promoted healing locally, but in spite
of it most persons with very severe
burns have died. Now, it is believed,
they need not die if less than 40 per
cent of the body surface is injured
In addition to plasma transfusions,
DR.. Harkins urged, burn victim
should be given injections of a puri-
fled extract of the secretion from the
cortex of the adrenal gland which
has some effect in closing the walls
of the injured capillaries.
Research work on the treatment
Is being rushed because of its signifi-
canoe in war.
An American Indian smallpox
medicine has provided one of the
most effective of pain killers "a
remedy for sufferings from neuralgia
and sciatica and an easer OF the
agonies of victims of incurable
cancers.
1t is distillate from the common
pitcher plant of the Atlantic Coast,
known because of its remarkable
habit of capturing and digesting
insects.
The new remedy was demonstrated
by Drs. William Bates, Bernard
Judovich, Winifred Stewart and
Joseph Hughes of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Kills Shooting Pains.
1t kills those sharp shooting pains
characteristic of neuralgia which
cannot be strictly localized-pains,
as DR.. Stewart expressed it, such as
you get when q dentists drill slips
and hits nerve" Complete freedom
from pain has been obtained in so
per cent of the cancer cases in which
the new remedy has been used, she
said.
The type of pain relieved, it was
explained, is quite similar to that
felt in an attack of appendicitis.
The experimenters believe that there
have been many needless appendi-
cltis operations-the pain being due
not to an inflamed appendix, but to
disturbed nerve flbers.
Muscle waves are the newest tools
of neurologists. They trap malinger-
ers such as soldiers trying to simu-
late shell shock, help diagnose some
of the most obscure of nervous
diseases, and shed new light on the
complex interactions of muscle and
brain.
They were demonstrated by Drs
Paul F. A. Hoefer and Tracy j.
Putnam of the Neurological Insti-
tute, New York.
Acts Like Relay Team.
A small hyperdermic needle con-
tanning a fine wire is inserted
through the skin against muscle.
This serves as an electrode which
records the minute electric currents
set up when the muscle is moved.
The most significant finding to date,
DR.. Hoefer explained, is that a
normal muscle activated by normal