Purgation

Two doses of castor oil gravely injured a U. S. Army doctor's career last week. Lieut. Colonel Bertram Foster Duckwall of Fort Clayton, Canal Zone ordered an oil purge for an enlisted man with an injured foot. Another soldier suffering from appendicitis received a similar dose. Seriously injudicious were those purgings, decided a board of Army officers who court-martialed Lieut. Colonel Duckwall and ordered his promotion to a colonelcy, when due, delayed a full year.

Important thesis of a meeting of stomach-&-intestines specialists in Atlantic City last week was a warning against the dangers of purgation. Cried Dr. J. Russell Verbrycke Jr. of Washington: "The radio ballyhooing of purgatives disguised and camouflaged under fancy names will increase the number of perforated appendices."

Raptly his gastroenterological associates listened to an injunction often enunciated, but seldom heeded: "Never take a physic when there is abdominal pain that could possibly be appendicitis."

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