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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1962)
12 A WEDNESDAY. JULY 18, 1962 MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFOBD. OREGON Dennis the Menace mm Small Worlds Around Us By LYNN M. WATKINS (Regiifcf and Tribuna Syndicate 1962) 'Stubborn' FDA Assistant Credited With Preventing Infant Deformaties Editor's not: This Is the itory of a woman who refused to let criticism iway htr doubts about a new drug. Her refusal to approva its ill in tha Unitad Stalai may hava pravantad thousands of babias from baing born with deformities. Pioneers Did Pretty Well in Early Attempts at Medicine It is not practiced much any more, but the time was, and not many years ago, when people believed in the so-called doctrine ol signa ture. That was back in the days when there was no corner drug store and the doctor was many miles away. There were no telephones or good roads. If anyone In the family be came sick, it was only the pioneer housewife herself who could administer medi cines, and her only course of supply was the woods and fields, her own garden, and the doctrine of signature. The fact that those pio neers retained a measure of good health, and survived to beget the numerous genera tions which followed indi cates pretty conclusively that this doctrine and barks, roots, berries and fruits most cer tainly had some curative effects. What It Means This peculiar sounding phrase ana Its application had to do with those plants whose leaves, fruits, bark, berries or flowers resembled in shape some organ of the human body. For Instance, those plants which had heart shaped leaves were supposed to be helpful In the treat ment of conditions of the heart. Belief in this proposition was known as doctrine of sig natures. And in this same de partment, a plant called hcartcase, which we now call the pansy, was used in emo tional affairs of the heart in England a few generations ago. A concoction of the leaves, steeped in water was given to a young lady to cure the pangs of love. Although we are more philosophical to day, we still use "digitalis" for heart trouble, and it came, and still docs, from a common garden plant we call the foxglove. And back when the doc trine of signature was so seri ously believed in, those plants with kidney-shaped leaves supposedly yielded them selves favorable to treatment of those organs. There are of course, leaves shaped like feet, hands, cars, nose and Just about anything we want to liken them to. Figuring out how to use, or what part of the plant yielded the proper curative, was something else again, but even then most people know that leaves had more differ ent component parts and ele ments than did the roots or the fruit. Did Pretty Well But with what sketchy knowledge our forefathers BY LEON BURNETT Washington (UPH Dr. Fran ces Oldham Kciscy 01 me Food and Drug Administra tion has been called a stub born woman. She also has been called an unreasonable bureaucrat. But Assistant FDA Commis sioned Winton B. Rankin says the American public owes her a vole of thanks for that stub- borncss. Rankin contirmcd that Dr. Kilscy may have prevented "an American tragedy" by her steadfast refusal to allow the marketing in this country of a sleeping pill later linked to grotesque deformities in new born children. The 47-year-old drug spe cialist withstood a barrage of criticism before a medical in vestigation eventually proved that her suspicions were well founded. The shory, which was re lated by the Washington Post, involves a drug with the chemical name thalidomide and a rare type of birth defect known as phocomclia. West German Development Thalidomide was developed in 1D54 by a West German firm but was discarded be cause it showed no effect on test animals. In 1958 another German firm found that it promised to be the best sleep inducer ever-no hangover, no danger in overdosage. Under the trade name of had, and the Indans before them, they did pretty well at that. They even found that the mourning bride, or pin cushion flower, was a pretty effective remedy for the itch, and the flower was named scabious: and itch is what the word means. Today with the prevalence of bathtubs and shower stalls, and a consciousness of the value of cleanliness, scabious is raised only because it is a pretty flower to grow In a garden. About then, too, the blossom of the chrysanthe mum was rubbed on fretful children who then always seemed to relax and drop peacefully to sleep. It was thought that something in the plant soothed the child, but now we know, and reluctant ly admit, that the poor little thing was suffering from body lice and the natural in secticide In the chrysanthC' mum blossoms killed the lice and the thankful child was able to rest. Contergan the drug found a booming market in West Germany. It was sold ir Bri tain as Distaval, in Portugal as Softenon, and in Canada as Talimol. In September 1960 the Wil liam S. Merrell Co. of Cin cinnati asked the FDA for clearance to market the com pound in the United States. The thalidomide applica tion became the first assign ment for Dr. Kelsey who had Just joined FDA. Along with the application came data claiming the drug to be safe for use. But Dr. Kciscy was not convinced. She repeatedly refused to ap prove the drug and her su periors backed her up. Dr. Kelsey says there were insinuations that she was a hair-splitter, an unreasonable bureaucrat - that she was stupid. But she refused to budge from her position. Affliction Becomes Common In 1961 West Germany found itself confronted by a vexing medical problem. Pho comclia, an affliction so rare that some medical dictionar ies do not even list it, was be coming all too common. Ordinarily, a victim of phocomelia is missing one arm and small rudimentary fingers grow from the stub. But the cases in Germany were worse. Some infants were born with both arms or legs missing, others with three limbs and a few with none at all. A variety of possible caus es, from heredity to radioac tive fallout, were considered and discarded. Then last No vember Dr. Widukind Lenz, a Hamburg pediatrician, con ducted a study which showed that about 20 per cent of the mothers of deformed infants whom he treated had taken thalidomide. After fi rthcr in vestigation, he found the rate went up to 50 per cent. The drug was found to be dangerous to the unborn when taken by the mother within 20 to 40 days after con ception. During this period, Dr. Lenz believes, the chanc es are at least two in five that the baby will be affected. Removed From Market Thalidomide was removed from the market in Germany and elsewhere. But it is esti mated that by the end of Au gust the number of deformed children born in West Ger many will be between 3,500 and 6.000. One of three is ex pected to die. Dr. Kelsey, wife of anoth er pharmacologist, F. Ellis Kelsey, special assistant to the surgeon general, and the mother of two daughters, 15 and 12, had this to say about her role in keeping the drug off the American market: "They certainly thought I was unreasonable. But I did not feel the material to back it up was very adequate. "The company wa? very anxious to gel the stuff on the market, but this was rou tine." The whole general tenor of the crlticisn. i f her "was sort of a 'stubborness'," she said. f a Per Share from tK' I A 1 f Ordinary Income l';'' J Payable My 31, 1961, to mm-m . holders of Seri. 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House Antitrust Group Plans Look At News Media Washinglon-IUPH-The House antitrust subcommittee plans to look into operations of newspapers, wire services and other news media later this year. No date has been set for the hearings, but they are not expected to start for at least two months and probably not until after Congress adjourns. Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.) said that he merely wanted facts and any type of censorship would be avoided "like the plague." One phase of the inquiry will deal with consolidations in the newspaper field. Tele vision and radio news cover age also will be studied. He said his group wanted to determine whether: -Is it a healthy business condition for one firm to own both the morning and after noon newspapers in a town? -Does the common owner ship of newspapers and television-radio stations result in slanted news? -How do the wire services operate, and what is their pro cedure for processing news for wide presentation? Celler said the subcommit- tee also was interested in the ; suburban press, which has I grown rapidly in recent years, j Includes Broadcasting Witnesses, he said, would include owners of news media, broadcasting officials and reprcscntalivcs of the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. He said no one would be subpoenaed, and no witness will be compelled to testify on editorial content against his wishes. To lay groundwork for the inquiry, a staff headed by Stuart II. Johnson is studying newspaper content at the Li brary of Congress. Johnson said that among the newspaper transactions to be investigated would be the purchase of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Item by S. I. Ncwhouse, and Hearst Publishing Co.'s purchase from Scripps Howard of the San Francisco News -Call Bulletin. ixioir miiuiuiot 1 L. 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