VOL.4, NO. 9
EL~VSNTH E ~ P O S I O~FOCB~M~C*I N INDUSTRIES
1187
Minute Doses of Iodine Speed Blood Circulation. Mare accurate knowledge of means of combating hardening of the arteries and other circulatory troubles of old age is the objective of experiments recently performed on the hearts of cats, kept alive after their removal from their departed owners' bodies. Dr. Hans Guggenheim, noted Berlin physiologist, reports that exceedingly minute doses of iodine have important effects on the circulation, as measured on the coronary artery in the muscular wall of the heart. That iodine has a speeding-upeffectan the circulation has been knowufor some time, Dr. Guggenheim states, but doctors have not been able t o get even an approximate notion of the best size for their doses. Hence his experiments. He found that the coronary arteries of his isolated cat hearts would dilate under the influence of potassium iodide a t a concentration of one part in a hundred thousand, and that this dilation could he maintained a t a dilution as 5 e a t as one part in five million. Iodine doses for arteriosclerosis h a w hitherto usually been much higher than this, he states. but if clinical experience bears out the conclusions derived from his experimental work, it will be possible to reduce the medical dose to a much smaller size.-Science Se&e Gland Extract Helps Near-Sightedness. Epinephrin, the drug that is extracted from the suprarenal glands, may he a remedy for near-sightedness. Dr. Meyer Wiener of St. Louis has tried out minute quantities of the powerful drug on patients with report of his results to the American Medical progressive myopia, and in a preliminary~. Adsociation stztcr his heliel in its value in correcting this derangement of vlslon. ).ledical opinion as to the causc of myopia is divided. I t is thought to be hereditary within certain limits. Application to close work has also long heed blamed as a cause of the failure of the eyes in its progressive phase. Most physicians agree that the stretching of the outer layer of the eyeball is an important factor, but just haw this comes about is still a mystery. Exercise and diet, it is generally agreed, help as much as anything. The ranch life of Theodore Roosevelt is a classic example of what fresh air and out-of-door work will do to help bad eyes as well as the physique generally. I t has been proved that exercise increases the epinephrin output of the suprarenal glands, and it is to this factor that Dr. Wiener attributes the improvement that short-sighted people gain from physical exertion.-Science Service
