Letters: Apr. 21, 1967

(2 of 3)

Sir: As a Protestant who has no moral argument with family control. I take exception to your cover story on contraception [April 7]. To say that "there is no evidence that the pills cause blood clots that might travel to the lungs or develop in the brain" indicates that your information came only from gynecologists who have a biased viewpoint of "the pill." As an internist, I have seen many vascular complications of oral contraceptives, and all serious. Hence oral contraception in its present form has to be viewed as a two-edged sword.

DONALD E. DERAUF, M.D. St. Paul

Sir: Why not the pill? After all, it has prevented more headaches than aspirin has ever cured.

LEE DANA GOODMAN Newton. Mass.

Sir: The best oral contraceptive is still "No."

J. W. KNOX Trinidad, Calif.

That Book

Sir: We appreciate TIME'S analysis of Manchester's The Death of a President [April 7], but let's hope this is the last—the very last—we hear of this book.

R. T. SILAS Waupaca, Wis.

Sir: Manchester's book may contain flaws and errors, and he may not be a dry-eyed historian or tragic poet, but as I read the book, I wept the same bitter tears and felt the same raw agony that I did on that November day so long ago—or was it only yesterday?

ROBIN JONES San Francisco

Lamps for the Oil

Sir: I wonder why England did not provide the fuel-oil slick from the tanker broken off Lands End [April 7] with a wick to burn the oil and thus save the beaches.

I was on the Empress of Australia, tied up at the dock during the earthquake that hit Yokohama Sept. 1, 1923. During the first night when the city was one huge bonfire, fuel-oil tanks along the shore burst their seams, spreading several inches of oil over the harbor. All that was needed was a wick. This finally came in the form of a burning, fully loaded lumber barge that drifted into the oil. It sucked the harbor surface free of oil in a few hours, spouting a flame 75 ft. high yet maintaining a burning area no greater than a circle of 50 ft. in diameter. The force of the suction was so great that crates and planks that had been in the water were lifted 15 to 20 ft. in the flames. When there was no more oil, the fire died.

Bombs, even of the phosphorous variety, cannot provide a proper wick for the continuous burning of the oil.

R. J. PAULY Albany, N.Y.

Schuyler's Syllabus

Sir: "Academy for Hard Cases" [April 7] was a nostalgic, memory-jogging article on one of the finest men I have ever known and one of the finest schools anywhere. Both Ben Becker and Schuyler High School have always been tough; both have also always had hearts as big as all outdoors. Although not shown on the school syllabus, maturity, responsibility and dignity lead the list of subjects the man and the school have always offered their students. I consider myself a better man today by virtue of having known them both.

A. C. BEVILACQUA Lieutenant, U.S.M.C. Philip Schuyler '49 Camp Lejeune. N.C.

Aspirin & the FDA