Capsules

If In coming weeks the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis plans to begin intensive field trials of its new polio vaccine in 200 or more selected counties in the U.S. (TIME. Nov. 23). Last week Illinois health officials said that the Illinois counties so favored might have to beg off. Director Roland R. Cross of the Illinois Department of Health, acting on the recommendations of a technical advisory committee, refused to permit the trials "until further proof of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine has been received."

P: Three-D movies, apart from their artistic value, can be a blessing to the U.S. moviegoer, says Reuel A. Sherman, stereo-vision specialist at Rochester's Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.: "Between 12 and 15% of the public have eye problems that they will become aware of for the first time by watching 3-D . . . Anyone who comes out of a 3-D movie groggy shouldn't blame the picture."

P: Commander D. J. Giorgio and Lieut. J. G. Morrow, anesthesiologists at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, have worked out a stratagem for soothing young surgical patients. Their device: a plastic space-chief helmet with a tube to admit oxygen and cyclopropane gas. After the space chief fogs off, he gets ether like ordinary mortals.

P: In making a blood count, technicians have to look through microscopes to determine the number of red cells in diluted blood samples. This takes time, and sometimes technicians make mistakes. Now researchers at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering Institute, working with electronics experts, have found a more foolproof blood-counter: a TV microscope. A small TV camera, mounted on a microscope, scans the blood on a slide. As the beam covers the slide, it counts the patches of light and dark made by the blood cells, and an electronic computer compensates for cells of varying sizes.

P: Chicago health authorities, ticking off three deaths in Chicago steam baths in recent months "from shock and exposure," called on the city council to ban steam-bath temperatures of more than 100DEG until the authorities can complete a safety study. (Present conventional ranges: 130DEG to 160DEG.) This aroused a storm of indignation among the bathhouse operators. Cried Charles Postl, 72, oldtime Loop steam-bath impresario: "Why, you can't even work up a good sweat at 100DEG. This is ridiculous. The whole civilized world will laugh at Chicago."

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