Medicine: To Nirvana with Miltown

The white caterpillar was 60 ft. long and it wriggled. Startled visitors to San Francisco's A.M.A. convention came face to face with the critter in the Civic Auditorium's new subterranean "Mole Hall." Every few seconds the caterpillar's double-hulled sides made of parachute silk heaved in simulation of caterpillar motion (achieved with the aid of a huge air-blowing system). The monster, which stole the show among 285 commercially sponsored exhibits, was Surrealist Salvador Dali's unrealistic idea of tranquillity executed for Wallace Laboratories to promote Miltown. Estimated total cost of the exhibit: $100,000, including a $35,000 fee for Artist Dali.

Untranquilizing as was the...