Word: compounding
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Long used as a remedy for gout, colchicine is a slightly poisonous alkaloid compound which occurs in the seeds of the meadow saffron or autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale. Two years ago Dr. Albert Francis Blakeslee, famed geneticist of the Carnegie Institution's station on Long Is land, announced the discovery of remark able effects produced on plants by colchicine (TIME, Nov. 8, 1937). The drug causes a doubling of the chromosomes (heredity carriers) in the germ cells of vegetables and flowers, producing sharp changes which breed true. It increased the growth rates of tobacco, phlox, onions, pumpkins, cosmos, radishes...
...treating compound fractures caused by bullets, bombs and toppling masonry, doctors aim to: 1) prevent infection; 2) immobilize the limb for best circulation and proper knitting of bones. To prevent infection, Dr. Trueta carefully snipped away all bits of bruised and dying flesh, for dead tissues, deprived of circulation, are a fertile breeding ground for germs. He used no antiseptics, for most of them, he believes, kill not only germs but the delicate growing cells, do more harm than good. After the wound is trimmed, cleaned and firmly packed with dry, sterile gauze, and while the patient is still anesthetized...
...Finns have something they call sisu. It is a compound of bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit, and to fight with the will to win. The Finns translate sisu as "the Finnish spirit," but it is a much more gutful word than that...
...patients in the early stages of arthritis he gives a course of twelve weekly injections of a gold-sulfur compound. Injections are made into a muscle. Doses are too small to bring toxic results: the first injection is only ten milligrams, the second 50, the next ten 100. During the first three weeks, said Dr. Dawson, a patient may feel "much worse." But in the second half of the course he shows "marked improvement." After the twelfth dose he is given a month's rest before another course of injections...