Evening star., 1944-04-06

series of brilliant experiments at
a British hospital, if they can be
made to put on weight their mental
conditions improve almost along
a parallel line in favorable cases.
One way to make man put on
weight is to give him insulin in
doses not quite up to the coma level
Not only does the hormone in
crease appetite but it induces a
condition where stomach secretion
seems to improve.
So this insulin therapy has been
adopted as the second step on the
assembly line at the brain repair
factory here commanded by 1t. Col
Ernest Parsons, formerly chief of
the military service at ST. Eliza
beth's Hospital in Washington. DR..
Sargant is in frequent consultation
and his own results are checked
with those of the Americans.
The appetite increases are pro-
digeous. The ordinary Army field
ration calls for approximately five
pounds and five ounces of food
day containing about 1000 calories,
or food energy units. This is con-
sidered an abundance for men on
the heaviest kind of work. Stint
ing his soldiers on quantity of food,
if it can possibly be gotten to them,
is not one of Uncle Sans faults.
Mess officers must fight to keep a
lot from being wasted. But the
average amount eaten by men on
insulin treatment in the hospital is
II pounds and IL ounces. One day
it was pushed up to IA pounds per
man.
The weight gain is often as much
as pound a day. The menu has
a calorie value of about 5000 day.
The men wake from their insulin
sleep ravenously hungry. They grab
food from the hands of the attend
ants as if they had been starving
for weeks. This is all to the good
in the eyes of Capt. Howard D.
Kelley, the medical officer in
charge.
Men 40 Pounds Underweight.
These men have come to the hos
pital as much as 40 pounds under
weight.
It is interesting to observe the
food the men select instinctively
when plates are laid before them.
They will leave juicy steak to the
last while they gulp down the last
morsel of bread and potatoes. They
crave, above all things, the carbo-
hydrates which the insulin is burn
ing up so rapidly. Usually there is
little gain in weight for the first
three or four days. Some mecha-
nism, nobody knows just what, must
go into action. After that a gain
of less than a half pound day is
considered highly unsatisfactory.
The best record has been a gain of
"a pounds in two weeks.
AS weight comes back symptoms
tend to disappear. After all, DIR.
Kelley says, this is neurosis hos
pital. Its job is not to treat
stomachs, but nerves. Sometimes
civilian doctor will try to calm
the nerves with sedatives so that a
patient will put on weight. Here
the process is reversed and one puts
on weight to calm the nerves.
'The doc just about steps out Of
the picture" Capt. Kelley says. THE
really important fellow is the mess
sergeant"
Usually, it is pointed out, the
Chronic stomach" does not make
its appearance until some time after
the start of the anxiety neurosis.
1t is unlikely that insulin treatment
ever will be given so far foreward
as an evacuation hospital. Seldom
will there be any call for it if the
sleep therapy is started soon
enough. But it represents perhaps
the biggest step on the assembly
line here where the true condition
of the men has been neglected four
or five months.
Chronic stomach" the doctors
here say, is a rather common con-
dition in civilian life. They expect
to add something to the techniques
of treating it.
street, the Rev. Robert o. Kevin
will be host pastor; Dr. Herbert E