Imag atiokes of Cher g ee Oa

rey

od, as were their families when the moth-
ers returned to their rooms in a cheerful;
wide-awake condition.

The Philadelphia doctors endorse the
new anesthetic method “as the nearest
thing to safe and painless childbirth that
we have in our obstetric VP

MEDICINE

ium,” but agree with the originators of
the method, Dr. Robert A. Hingson and
Dr. Waldo B. Edwards, of the U. S.
Public Health Service, that it should be
used only by competent, specially trained
persons.

Science News Letter, January 22, 1944

Hip aaie Neale Vision

Masile coordination is also aided by spraying hot,
then cold water over lower part of trunk. Recommended for
routine patrol duty and factory work.

®/COLD HIP BATHS for men doing
routine patrol duty or monotonous tasks
in factories where acute vision and good
muscular coordination “may spell the
difference between success and disaster”
are suggested in War Medicine (Decem-
ber, 1943), published by the National
Research Council and the American
Medical Association.

The suggestion comes from Dr. Arthur
H. Steinhaus and Albert Kelso, of
George Williams College, Chicago, with
the technical assistance of Viktor Rein-
hardt. Mr. Reinhardt recently received
training in the procedure in Germany
where it was perfected as a conditioning
device for men in industry and in the
air force,

The cold hip baths produce striking
temporary improvement in visual func-
tions involving binocular vision, in visual
acuity and in critical fusion frequency.
They also produce temporary improve-
ment in the rate at which a person can
tap a telegraph key and in eye to leg
muscle reaction time as shown by auto-
mobile driver reaction tests.

Men who took the baths regularly re-
ported feeling exhilarated. Some said that
the visual field appeared brighter, that
black objects looked blacker and white
ones whiter. —

Unlike pep pills there is no after-de-
pression or “pay-off” period. The stimu-
lating effect of the cold hip bath may
last as long as six hours if no meal is
taken after the bath. In the tests made
by the Chicago scientists, the baths were
taken shortly after breakfast. Tests of
the visual function were made before
the bath and again at noon, some two-
and-one-half hours after.

To take the bath, the subject sits on a
chair with feet resting on another chair
or stool and sprays water over his lower
abdomen and hips. For the first three to

five. minutes increasingly hot water, to
the limit of comfort, is used. This is grad.
ually changed to tap coldness (45 to 65
degrees Fahrenheit) and the cold water
is continued, for five to 15 minutes.

Over-all cold showers did not produce
the same effects as the cold hip baths.
The scientists believe this is because of
the greater loss of heat in an over-all
shower.

The cold hip baths produce their ef-
fect, it is believed, through the sympa-
hietic nervous system.

Science News Letter, January 22, 1944

Army Bread Can Be Made
With Water from Ocean

> BREAD MAKERS for the Army,
stranded on some far-away island in the
Pacific, need not despair when their
supply of fresh water and salt is run-
ning low—they can just dip their pans

¢ ° £..
ScieNcE News Letter for January 22, 1944 j 53

Pe
into the ocean and use sea water in-

stead.

Tests were made by the Quartermaster
Corps Subsistence Research Laboratory
in Chicago with samples of sea water
taken from oceans around Florida, Vir-
ginia, California and Washington. The
salt and mineral content of the water
was determined, it was strained to re-
move seaweed, sand and other undesir-
able matter, and then treated with cal-
cium hypochlorite for purification.

Instead of using 60 parts of fresh
water and two parts of salt, it was found
that 62 parts of salt water could be used.
Otherwise, the bread was made in the
usual manner. The finished product, ac-
cording to a report issued by the War
Department, showed only a slight vari-
ation from bread ‘made according to
the standard recipe.

Science News Letter, January 22, 1944

Jan. 25 Eclipse of Sun
Visible from Part of U. S.

> THE TOTAL ECLIPSE of the sun
on Tuesday, Jan. 25, will be best ob-
served in South America and Africa,
but spectators in southwestern United
States can see a portion of the sun cov-
ered by the moon. (See SNL, Dec. 25,
1943)

The farther south spectators from
Florida to Texas are, the greater the por-
tion of the sun that will be hidden from
them, because of their nearness to the
path of totality. (See accompanying
map.) For spectators in Miami, Fla., the
partial eclipse will begin at approxi-

 

SS

 

TOTAL SOLAR ECL/PS: FF

 

 

JANUARY 25, 1944