Coughdrops Flayed

Carotene is a yellow pigment found in carrots and some other plants. In the human liver it becomes Vitamin A, hence has been dubbed "primary Vitamin A." Scientists agree that Vitamin A is essential to growth. Because an experimental animal deprived of it is susceptible to infection, some wishful-thinking investigators have assumed that Vitamin A is also "anti-infective," have cried it up as a weapon against respiratory infections. Experiments have by no means substan tiated their claims. Researchers in Manhattan lately reported that children dosed with Vitamin A (in fish liver oils) and "primary Vitamin A" had proven no more resistant to respiratory infections than a "control" group which went without.

Pondering these facts, jovian Editor Morris Fishbein of the Journal of the American Medical Association last week was moved to wrath. At two phrases which lately began appearing on the wrappers of Smith Brothers' cough drops and cough syrup he cast a three-column edi torial bolt, gist of which lay in two words. Smith Brothers' phrases were: "Contains Primary VITAMIN A. THE 'ANTI-INFECTIVE' VITAMIN." Editor Fishbein's two words: "meretricious quackery."

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