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A young mother in Liege,
a. Belgium, -was recently
ae with murder for
hee ce her newly-born,
ie €ss daughter. The moth-
fen used a certain tran-
: which while pregnant,
ise doctors felt was the
thor of her child’s hideous
a The drug has
i, as banned in Bel-
“a me ut the mother is still
Mal for her life...
n Canada, two tranquiliz-
the een were sold under
\e tade Names of ‘“‘Talimol”
ed fy, €vadon”’ were remov-
ie druggists’ shelves
USe of certain side

aid blessings of free en-

a € are not restricted to

ever ae countries, how-
7 as the following article
*semary Small shows.

I e

ber on vember and Decem-

i . last year, drug firms

oe countries quietly

Bteparern a number of their

ket ations from the mar-

The
0

te

Tugs which were
Tawn were sedatives,
Prescribed for preg-
Women to stop nausea.
‘ha ee Vere marketed under
in a ifferent trade names
lange? Sweden, Swit-

» Belgium, Australia,

AN
Pan and Great Britain.

A
Sutg.tteY all contained
(Fi

a
mig Stance called thalido-

Raete Was, of course, no

drawal about the with-

Market of the drugs from the
It is ;

—S only now that the pos-

€n
Nant

sible consequences of using
this drug are becoming
known to the public. Tragic
reports are coming in from
all over Europe of increased
numbers of babies being
born without. arms or legs,
or with malformation of their
limbs.

In West Germany there
was an increase in babies
born with limb malforma-
tions from one in 4,000 in
1959 to 25 in 4,000 last year.

In Britain, according to a
recent copy of ‘Lancet’, a
“very conservative estimate”
of the number of malformed
babies jborn between 1960
and now is 800.

How can it happen that a
drug with such terrible side
effects may be marketed
and_ prescribed?

Is it true that drugs are
put on the market without

ters sometimes sell

\° UL SLE

proper clinical trials?
* * *

Most of the bigger drug
firms do have to do a good
deal of testing before their
new products go on the
market.

But we live in a competi-
tive society. And that means
that each drug firm wants to
get a particular type of pro-
duct out before its rivals.

And that, in turn, may
mean that they “can’t afford”
to wait too long for every
type of test to be properly
carried out.

Then comes the _ next
aspect of our commercial
society — pushing the drug:
when it is launched.

Every family doctor in the
country has his table piled
high every day with circu-
lars, brochures, and samples
of new drugs, whose proper-

ties are described in glowing
terms.

One general practitioner
told me: “I don’t see repre-
sentatives of drug firms, but
they are constantly calling
with literature and samples.

“Many doctors, like my-
self, throw all this. stuff
straight in the wastepapper
basket,” he commented, ‘‘and
do not prescribe any new
drug (however much hulla-
baloo has been made about
it) until we have seen reports
of proper clinical trials car-
ried out by British doctors.”

“But, of course, there are
some doctors who like to be
‘go-ahead’, or who succumb
to the tremendous pressures
put on them by the drug
firms.”

* * *

The medical profession

and the drug firms are still

arguing about thalidomide.

There have been abnormal
births to women who have
not taken this drug during!
pregnancy, and, conversely,
women who have taken it
have given birth to perfectly
normal babies.

;” HEALTH

But the point is that other
drugs prescribed for preg-
nant women might also be
capable of causing abnorma-
lities in their babies.

There seems to be a case
for an inquiry into the con-
tent and effect of new drugs.
There is certainly a very
strong case for the setting up
of a central drug-testing
agency under government
control — to make sure that
no tragedy of such magni-
tude can occur again.

oO ri

other planets?

Age-old query—life

s

| peeking alone in the
ings ee Or do other be-
anceq 1 Possibly more ad-

re + 8n ourselves?
Smita, here other worlds
§laxie : ae own in other
ling .? Millions upon mil-
1" years away?
like W many planet families,,
there Sur solar system, are:
to ho ™ our galaxy? Nearer
Marg? G0es life exist on
°F Venus?

Westie and a myriad other
the soi aS are no longer for
With “XCe-fiction addict, and.
tins ..° Practical explora-
°R, are Space now actually
| °f very wide interest.
"th *viet space probe went
Year, Tection of Venus last:
Me aN its radio failed and
Mounts <* no near-at-hand.

* *

Rea } 2

Ch; a "

g Tees for the Stars, by
spathis °v. Price 48c.

Cientig. VE 11 known Soviet
jcts stug aS spent many
lls 5 Fane Mars. Here he

1 ney,» life, of the birth

pty —_ SClence — astrobo-

a that 8nd of the discover-

ony Bain ave enabled man

pest ol New knowledge of
he prints: He describes
eats Reale Of his experi-
hich “ the study of Mars
the “a to supply proof
Sten i
anet, Re of life on

The co-ordinating and computing centre during Gherman

Titov’s flight.

first task should be to fly
around Venus.

Sir Bernard Lovell has
warned against the danger of
contamination by earthly or-
ganisms in the event of a
landing.

Some microbes could mul-

tiply very quickly and spoil

the chance of studying any
life form that existed.
os * *

There are some who still
think that the earth is likely
to be the only centre of life,
rather like those who once

thought that the sun and stars
went around us.

But now we know our sun
is a middling star toward the
edge of a fairly typical
galaxy, interest in the Uni-
verse has sharpened.

But discussion is often
held back by lack of up-to-
date knowledge about the
nature of the Universe on the
one hand and the nature and
origin of life on the other.

Many reputable men of
science have now come to the
conclusion that there must be
life on millions of planets in
the observable Universe,
that there may even be other
men and that most of us will
live long enough to know
whether life exists on Mars
and Venus.

* = *

Life cannot continue for
ever on Earth and: a major
change in the sun’s energy
output would mean that man
would have to escape to other
worlds. This crisis incidental-
ly is not likely to occur for

another 5,000 million years.

This period is greater than *

the age- of the earth which is
believed to be something over
2,000 million years, with man
a million - year - old ‘new-
comer.

Have other spacemen visit-
ed us? We don’t know, be:
cause they may have come
before man evolved or was
in too primitive a state to re-
cord their visit.

Life on other planets may
still be primitive or, on the
other hand, may have run its
course.

There are probably untold
millions of worlds in every
stage of development — from
primitive marine organisms
to more advanced races than
man.

Can we prove this? It seems
not at present, but man can
strive towards the stars and
co-operation to do so is much
more worthwhile than the
present morbid pre-occupa-
tion with destruction.

JOHN MOSS

Acclaimed

film from India to be shown here

he Indian Government's
T contribution to the Van-
couver Film _ Festival is
“Prapanch” ‘Family Life’).
It is a sadly realistic story of
a family too large for its in-
come. Mounting debts catch
up with a, pottery maker,
whose wife and six children
are left without means of sup-
port when he commits suicide.
One daughter becomes a pros-
titute, the other dies in hos-
pital and the son ends up in

. jail. The mother finally: turns - :

her misfortune to good use ~

when she spreads knowledge
about family planning to pre-
vent similar tragedies strik-
ing. Directed by Madhukar
Pathak, ‘““Prapanch’”’ won the
All Indian Certificate of

Merit in State Awards for

Films, 1961, and the 1961
Phalke Award for Best Pic-
ture, Best Story, Best Photo-
graphy and Best_Director.
Short and documentary

films submitted to the AAR So
include . Oscar. -winner» “‘Le » the. use. of still. photographs: -

Ciel Et La Boue” (“Sky
Above and Mnhud_beneath’’)
which comes from Embassy

_Pictures, New York. It is a

penetrating documentary fea-
ture of a safari through un-
chartered sections of the is-
land of New Guinea and
evokes, without frills, primi-
tive man and his hardships.
The late Gary Cooper acts
as narrator in ‘The Real
West,” a film from N.B.C.’s
“Project 20” series. Through

‘France, where -he ete

and old prints, it tells the
story of how the West “was
won,” and brings this flam-
boyant era of North Ameri-
can history back to life.
Also from N.B.C. comes the
1962 Emmy Award winning
documentary “Vincent Van
Gogh: A Self Portrait,’ which
traces, without the use of ac-
tors, the life of the artist
from birthplace in Holland, to

ba OY ) 8 hE Do.

cma