Capsules

> At least 100 Britons are threatened with partial blindness as a result of watching the solar eclipse on June 30, reported three hospitals in Scotland. Some victims may have suffered permanent damage to the macula (the point of clearest vision at the retina's center), in the future would see well only out of the corner of the eye. Two-thirds of the reported cases were in eastern Scotland, where skies were clearest. Doctors in the U.S., where the eclipse could be seen only during early-morning hours, have so far reported only three cases of eye damage, none of them serious.

> At a cancer research conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Russian scientists announced flatly: "Studies made in Russia [indicate] that there is no relation between tobacco and cancer . . . We do not consider this a problem of importance."

>A big percentage of premature babies soon catch up in size and weight to normal children, according to the British Medical Journal. A comparative survey of 700 children (half of them premature, the rest normal) showed that 40% of the premature babies had reached normal height and weight by the age of four. They were all children of average-sized mothers (average 63 1/2 in., 135 lbs.). The laggard 60% were children of small women. Concluded the report: "The height of a mother gives a better indication of the likely growth pattern of her premature baby than does her baby's weight at birth, the medical history of pregnancy, or the length of gestation."

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