Medicine: Capsules, Aug. 31, 1953

¶ Two Richmond, Va. doctors warned in the A.M.A. Journal that in addition to its other hazards, Antabuse (the drug to combat alcoholism, now officially renamed disulfiram) should not be given to alcoholics with heart trouble. Taken with a little alcohol, as it must be to bring on the reaction which makes patients swear off liquor, the drug puts a strain on any heart.

¶ From the military campaigns of the Caesars, John Gardner, a Navy veteran studying pharmacy at the University of California, concluded that there may be germ-killing substances in ordinary red wine. Roman legionaries, who carried wine with them during invasions, had fewer casualties from intestinal infections than modern armies. Gardner has isolated a mild germ killer from wine, now hopes to concentrate it for practical use.

¶ To test doctors' appetites for free samples, George A. Kellogg, a New Jersey pharmaceutical researcher, sent out 1,000 postcards announcing new "cures" for four obviously phony diseases, "gastraposis," "Hemingway's Syndrome," "Hyglochycococephelicia" and "Gallardia." No fewer than 80 cards were returned with requests for samples.