Capsules

> Medicine has known for years that a virus of the papova group causes warts, horny skin growths that can develop--and disappear--rapidly. Yet doctors cannot agree upon the proper cure. Some recommend surgery, cautery with an electric needle, localized freezing, or acid to burn away the tissue; a few even fall back on folk remedies like touching warts with a copper penny or with a slice of raw potato. Now a group of Massachusetts General Hospital physicians has reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry that warts can also be removed by hypnosis. The researchers reached this conclusion after hypnotizing 17 wart-afflicted patients once a week for five weeks and telling them that warts would disappear from their bodies. Nine of the patients had fewer warts after the test period, while none in a control group of seven showed any improvement. Why the treatment succeeded is a mystery; the doctors can only suggest that the hypnosis somehow bolstered the patients' immune response to the virus.

> Americans often have trouble enough finding a doctor when they suddenly become ill. But their difficulties are compounded overseas where, once located, a doctor may well not understand English. To help travelers find the right man, the Manhattan-based World Medical Association offers the International Medical Directory. The passport-sized booklet lists the names and addresses of English-speaking physicians--or of medical organizations likely to know where to find them--in 223 cities in 79 countries, from such popular tourist spots as France and Denmark to such little-visited lands as Botswana and Burma. The directory is so up-to-date that it even tells the traveler how to obtain medical care in the People's Republic of China.

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