Capsules

P:A "middle way" plan for compulsory national health insurance went into effect in Sweden, replacing voluntary plans which (with state aid) had covered 65% of the population. To extend coverage to all citizens, the state will now triple its payments, to $150 million a year, and will raise the money by an unpopular hike in liquor taxes. Unlike the British system, which foots the entire doctor's bill, Sweden's plan will pay only 75% and calls for direct contributions by individuals (a man earning $2,000 will pay $36 to insure his family). Costly drugs will be free and many prescriptions will go at half price, but there will be no free wigs or spectacles. Queen Louise signed up as Subject No. 231103--her husband, King Gustaf, is the only one of 7,150,000 Swedes not entitled to the plan's benefits.

P:Toothpaste manufacturers often claim that complex chemicals called anti-enzymes cut down acid formation in the mouth and therefore tooth decay. Three Rochester (N.Y.) researchers ran careful tests and reported: the anti-enzymes reduce acidity all right--but not in the important crevices between the teeth where decay usually occurs.

P:It is never bad to pick up a crying baby unless he has already been spoiled by being picked up too often at the slightest whimper, Sheffield's Professor Ronald S. Illingworth wrote in the British Medical Journal. The only time it is right to let a child "cry it out" is when he is being broken of a crying habit for which parents are to blame.

P:Encouraged by improvement in about two-thirds of 2,100 mental patients treated with tranquilizing drugs--chlor-promazine and reserpine (TIME, June 14, Nov. 8)--New York state authorities decided to make them available for all suitable cases among the 112,000 in its state hospitals. Not cures for any mental illness, the drugs make patients more responsive to other forms of treatment.

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