Medicine: Economy

No U. S. surgeon would dare operate without rubber gloves. Sterilized, they protect patients from infection, protect the surgeon from accidental cuts and infection from patients. But so serious is Germany's rubber shortage that last week, in a Munich medical journal, patriotic Surgeon Karl Faber advised his colleagues to "wash their hands several minutes longer in order to economize on [dispense with] valuable rubber gloves." Other warlike economies suggested by Dr. Faber: 1) substitution of cloth gloves for rubber except in major operations; 2) laundering of bloody bandages and compresses which are ordinarily thrown away; 3) use of small-sized towels in operating on children.