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Show Timely Warning on Dangers of 'Pep Pills' DURING the college examinations in my student days, I noticed one of the students with a most peculiar expression on his face and remarked to another student that Blank must be much afraid of the examinations. I was quietly informed in-formed that Blank was using a stimulating drug to brighten him up and keep him awake. Many physicians and others were amazed to read last spring that students stu-dents at universities in the United States and Canada were using stimulating stim-ulating drugs pep pills during examinations. This was done in some cases with full knowledge of the university authorities who "recognized" "rec-ognized" that as the students were likely to be nervous and upset, a pep- pill would prevent them from collapsing during the examination. A timely warning of the danger of the "pep pill" is to hand in the Journal of the American Medical Association from Coroner Lowell C. Smith, M. D., Lafayette, Ind., who reports the death of a student during dur-ing a written university examination. examina-tion. The cause of death was a greatly dilated heart. He had eaten a large meal just before the examination. exam-ination. His examination paper, as far as he had completed it, was studied by the professor in the subject who stated that the student "was writing a very good paper and had made very good progress in the examina- tion during the hour which he had written." He was a good student, a splendid athlete, and had passed life insurance examinations less than a year before. The lesson is that with body and mind tensed and tired, there is always al-ways danger from the use of a stimulating drug. |