This feature is part of a year-long series of excerpts and special commentaries celebrating AFP's 50th year of publication. Excerpts from the two 1950 volumes of GP, AFP's predecessor, appear along with highlights of 50 years of family medicine.

This feature includes short comments and remarks from the July through December 1950 issues of GP.

Fluorides and Dental Care

In the Public Health Report for November 11, 1949, Knutson and his associates described the effects of topically applied fluorides on cavity formation in the permanent teeth of children. These studies showed that a series of 4 topical applications of a 2 percent solution of sodium fluoride, preceded by a dental cleansing, effected a 40 percent reduction in the incidence of dental cavities. Making of more than 4 such applications did not increase the prophylactic effect. (October 1950)

Pasteurizing Milk

An electric apparatus has been devised which will pasteurize milk in a split second with a flash of radio waves. The patent has been assigned to the Radio Corporation of America. The high frequency electric field heats the liquid nearly to its boiling point for a fraction of a second and this instantly kills germs. The milk is then cooled in a moment by spraying it into a vacuum chamber. (October 1950)

Antipolio Element in Human Milk

Recently Dr. Albert B. Sabin of the Children's Hospital Research Foundation of Cincinnati reported a most interesting discovery which may perhaps be the key to the solution of a terrible problem. What Doctor Sabin has found is a substance in the milk of about 75 percent of mothers and in the milk of an occasional cow, which will protect a baby from polio anywhere from one month to 340 days after birth.

This discovery can explain why in those parts of the world in which the mothers nurse their babies for three or four years, small children do not get paralyzed.

When the substance from the milk is mixed with the virus of polio and injected into the brains of mice, none of the animals get paralyzed. Everyone will watch with great interest for further reports on this substance in milk. (September 1950)

A Book Review:

New and Non-Official Remedies

Issued under the direction and supervision of The Council of Pharmacy and Chemistry, American Medical Association. Pp. 800. Price. $3.00. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1950.

This volume is one of the most useful that a physician can own. Now that new remedies are coming from the drug houses faster than ever, every wide-awake physician wants to know what is going on. If he wants to keep up to date, he would do well to have this volume within reach of his desk. (November 1950)

Brookings Institution Studies Medical Care

In an attempt to determine the quantity of medical services as it now exists in the nation and its effectiveness in meeting the medical demands of the people, the Brookings Institution is conducting a study of medical service in the United States. This two-part study will present factual material relating to the availability of medical service and will examine proposals and possibilities for needed or desirable improvements in the quantity and in the effectiveness of the methods of distributing medical service.

The study will be divided into seven categories: (1) medical personnel and facilities, (2) voluntary and social insurance; the part played by (3) industry, (4) labor unions, (5) philanthropy and other voluntary agencies, (6) government, and (7) public opinion on all phases of medical service.

The American Academy of General Practice is collaborating with the Institution by supplying information under the first category. (September 1950)