Newscripis
by K. M. Reese
Freedom through chemistry A new, 16-page booklet from the Manufacturing Chemists Association, "Chemistry Liberates the Woman," includes a handful of "receipts" from as long ago as 1891 designed to show the ladies how great they've got it now. The booklet is a part of MCA's consumer information program. It gives the following household hints from issues of the Ladies Home Journal for 1891: "The following is a choice soap receipt tried and tested for many years by a family of noted housekeepers. Take two pounds of pure beef tallow, one pound of sal-soda, one-half pound of salt, one ounce of gum-camphor, onehalf pint of glycerine, one ounce of borax; boil slowly for one hour, stirring frequently with a wooden spatula. Set it off the fire until cold, then boil it over, adding one-half of a pound of best refined white loaf-sugar, and one-half pound of coarse oat-meal. Perfume with
Letters Ecology and politics SIR: Your very fine editorial of June 19i made eminent sense to me, and I therefore introduced it to the Congressional Record1 of July 26. i There are many others who feel as you about the big push to return our land to its; i original pristine glory with no thought of the consequences to man or the economy. Ini that regard, House Report No. 92-1175, titled, "Department of Agriculture-Environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriation Bill, 1973," from the Committee oni Appropriations is outstanding. As an example, the first sentence on top of page 17 eloquently states what is happening in this> country and around the world: "Congress in i recent years has been passing environmental laws that are difficult if not impossible not to support, but which may be impossible to carry out." [Excerpt from the Congressional Record/ follows, with remarks preceding the above-mentioned editorial.] In the House of Representatives Wednesday, July 26, 1972 Mr. HANSEN of Idaho. Mr. Speaker, the American Chemical Society, along with| many other of our learned societies in this5 country, has been in the forefront of the5 efforts to preserve and to improve the environment wherever possible. This effort by! the American Chemical Society has beenI ongoing since the early 1960's. In 1969 the» society's subcommittee on environmentalI improvement published a report titled, "Cleaning Our Environment—The ChemicalI Basis for Action," which was one of the bestt and first documents on attacking pollution^ in all the elements—air, land, and water. The society has continued its efforts ini fighting pollution; and their publication, Chemical Engineering News, in every issue, has articles and features on preserving the3 environment. The June 19, 1972, issue con28
C&EN August 21, 1972
oil of rose, sassafras or bergamot, as suits the maker." "The modern remedies for chilblains are legion—more almost than the sufferers therefrom. Three of the best are: raw onions sliced and bound upon the sore spots; oil of peppermint well rubbed in; and thirdly, tincture of iodine, applied with a feather or camel's-hair brush." "A valuable salve for cuts or wounds of any kind: Boil one-half cup of thick, sweet cream ten or fifteen minutes, stirring constantly; when cold, beat it thoroughly when it will be a creamy paste. Bottle and cork tightly or make fresh every t i m e . " Feel better ladies? If not, reflect that gray hair once was treated with a mixture of chimney soot and lard, and that skin was softened with beef marrow and white onions.
What's in chicken soup? Whether modern technology has made life easier or liberated women (as noted elsewhere on this page) can probably be tains an editorial by Patrick P. McCurdy, the magazine's editor, on "Preserving the Amenities." Mr. McCurdy points out that you cannot separate science from technology or from politics. He concludes that attempts to perform such separation create vacuums that can draw in the unwary, the ignorant, and the irresponsible. I have met many people who seem to be unaware that when man creates a vacuum, nature will tend to fill it. In this case, as Mr. McCurdy points out, the vacuum can be filled with those who can only contribute to the confusion surrounding national and international attempts to preserve the environment, I would recommend that those in public life think carefully before flailing science and technology as the sources of pollution, just because the unwary, the uninformed, and the irresponsible have blamed science and technology and this has now become a popular pastime. Those in public life, either elected or appointed, must coordinate the activities of science, technology, and public affairs. Not to do so is to defraud our Nation. I commend to my colleagues Mr. McCurdy's thought-provoking editorial. Orval Hansen Member of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Blood storage methods SIR: Dr. John F. Lontz, commenting in the June 5 C&EN (page 87) on the article "New method aids blood storage" (C&EN, March 13, page 24), has properly called attention to the agglomeration method of deglycerolizing frozen blood which predated the Red Cross process and was developed by Dr. Charles Huggins in the early 1960's. The Red Cross procedure is based largely on studies initiated by Dr. John Tullis, Dr. Lew Haynes, and others at the Protein Foundation and the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston in the late 1950's. Although we have modified that procedure in a number of ways, the phrase "new method" is clearly an exaggeration. While I am correcting the record I would also like
argued on philosophical grounds, but it seems without question to have made life more complicated. The point is made well in "Standards for Meat and Poultry Products," a Consumer Reference List from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The document is designed to tell the shopper whether "Chicken Soup," for example, contains any chicken or how much beef is contained in "Beef with Gravy." It answers these and other questions about the compositions of more than 200 protein food products. The basis of the USDA standards is that a federally inspected meat or poultry product, to be labeled with a particular name, must meet specific requirements established by the department. Chicken Soup must contain at least 2% chicken; Chicken Stew must contain a minimum of 12% chicken. Beef with Gravy must contain at least 50% beef; Gravy with Beef requires only 35% beef. Spaghetti Sauce with Meat must be 6% meat; Spaghetti with Meat and Sauce must be 12% meat. And so on.
Please keep Letters to the Editor as short as possible, 400 words or fewer. Letters should be signed (we do not publish anonymous letters), and address and affiliation, if desired, should be included. to point out that the statement attributed to me that "about 1 million units of blood have been processed" is inaccurate. The Red Cross so far has processed fewer than 10,000 units and probably no more than 50,000 have been frozen by all processes put together. The Red Cross procedure has been introduced into 21 blood centers around the country. The process and its apparatus is still in an evolutionary phase and in five years will probably bear little resemblance to either the original Tullis-Haynes procedure or the present Red Cross process. Harold T. Meryman, M.D. Associate Research Director, Blood Program, American National Red Cross, Bethesda, Md.
Think positively SIR: I wish to add my voice to that of D. E. Pearson (C&EN, July 3, page 32) in roundly criticizing the editorial of May 29, in which it was stated that chemists lack needed versatility and quality. It seems to me that what chemists lack is self-interestedness! Unlike other professions, we chemists spend whatever time we have for making public utterances in doing our best to present ourselves in the worst possible light. You never find members of the medical profession, for instance, "sounding off" as to how incompetent some of their members are, although daily we learn, albeit surreptitiously, of botched operations, missed diagnoses, and other examples of shoddy medical practice. Their astronomically high earnings, contrasted with our abysmal level of income, reflects not only the value of their Continued on page 19
