The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-18
I STILL SAY NEVER MIND YOUR
 BLOOD PRESSURE

0LOOD xhE0OO6E
 Tn the booklet CvD (cardiovas- cular degeneration, wearing out of heart and arteries, valvular incom- petence, endocarditis, anoxia and heart failure, enlargement of heart, abuse of analgesic of pain-killing drugs, angina pectoris. valvular leakage)-for copy of booklet send ten cents and stamped envelope bearing your address-I say:
 NEVER MIND YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE. The blood pressure is too high or too low. IN CON- SEQUENCE OF WHAT AILS YOU OR YOUR WAY OF LIV- ING. You will never get any, where if you are childish enough to believe that your blood pres sure has somehow gotten out of kilter when you weren't watching carefully enough and if you can only find some drug, diet or bath or some mechanical or physical or mental treatment which will raise or lower it 8 few notches, as the case may be, your other complaints VIII Van1Sn.
 wrote that several years ago, and now after due deliberation find it is still the best advice I can give readers or correspondents, al- though they may think I'm just be- ing ultra-ethical about it.
 I have never been much 1n1- pressed by blood pressure measure ments or by basal metaboliSm tests it has always seemed to me that the art, the professional skill or ability of the doctor in diagnosing and treating disease varies inverse ly with his Goldbergian equipment.
 Personally I wouldn't pay 8 nickle for the professional opinion of a doctor or a dentist either who would decide on the basis of an X-ray film alone that I must have a tooth extracted. Nor would I be enthusiastic about following any treatment prescribed by doctor on the evidence of basal metabol- ism reading or series of such tests.
 If you turn a faucet to draw a bucket of water you get some con- ception of what water pressure means. It is pressure that keeps water circulating through the water system. The pressure has nothing to do with the thickness or thin ness, the purity or impurity of the water. These positive facts apply to blood pressure too. The water pressure may be high, low or just right, without any change in the quantity or amount of water in the pipes. Just so the blood pressure may be high, low or just right with out regard to the amount of blood the individual has. So this is one more positive fact about blood pressure has nothing to do with thickness or thinneSS of the blood, purity or impurity of the blood, nothing to do with the question of too much or too little blood.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 SulfaniIamide
 Can Sulfanilanide be obtained in a drugstore without a prescription? If not, how are we to get it?
 (MiSS S. M
 Answer-If you follow my ad- vice you will neither try to buy it nor take it without the personal direction of your physician.
 Wh0oping Cough
 How long is whooping cough contagious? Son practically isolated for six weks. but he is eager to play with other boys now and he seems to be well. (Mrs. G. K.)
 Answer-Whooping cough is com- municable from the early "ca- tarrhaI' stage before the whooping begins until about three weeks after the wf1ooping begins. Four weeks of isolation (from close contact with other children or adults) will suffice in nearly all cases.
 Copyright, 1914, John F. Dille Col