杏吧原创

Restarting the heart

When the heart stops during an operation, blood must be sent to vital organs within three minutes. This means the heart has to be started again or manual massage begun. If the massage is not carried out correctly, circulation to the brain may be inadequate, and the heart itself may fail to resume spontaneous activity before the operator tires.

In an effort to overcome these difficulties Dr Vineberg of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, has designed a mechanical apparatus to apply cardiac resuscitation. The device consists of a nylon bag wrapped around the heart. Sewn to its inside are two rubber bladders which inflate alternately to mimic massage. The apparatus has proved successful in dogs, but has yet to be tried in humans.

Too close for comfort

A horrid advertisement has appeared on the backs of some London buses. Motorists who creep close enough can read in letters of decreasing size, like those on an optician鈥檚 testing chart: 鈥淚f you travel as closely as this to a moving vehicle you need brake linings made by xxxx鈥�.

Presumably cars with brakes made by other companies collide with the bus, and next time their owners will buy brakes made by xxxx. It is even possible to imagine that every British motorist will be intimidated into buying one kind of brake lining in this way. If this is indeed the intention, the advertisement seems even more unethical than those which appeal to children imploring them to beg their mothers for certain sweets. There is surely a case for London Transport refusing to carry these slogans on its buses on the grounds that they are a possible danger to motorists. After all, its buses are so plastered with advertisements that it cannot be afraid that the loss of one of them would make any important difference to its income.

From The New 杏吧原创, 31 October 1957