Medicine: Nagged to Life?

Women who do not want to be widowed can prolong their husbands’ lives “with measured doses of enlightened nagging,” an official of the American Cancer Society suggested at the annual meeting last week in Manhattan. Said Frank Kramer, director of field relations:

“We would like to see women—history’s most effective medium of communication —turn their talents to saving their husbands from early death by lung cancer. . . . They should insist that men with persistent coughs go see the doctor. Because most men are notoriously insensitive to seemingly minor symptoms, the job will not be easy. In most cases it may entail some nagging, but I believe most women will agree that it is better to have a live and healthy husband, however harassed he may be, than to allow him to go complacently to an untimely grave.”