Medicine: Blood Wanted

Many a U.S. man & woman who had promised blood to the Red Cross had welshed on the promise. Blood centers had cancellations running as high as 50%.

Last week many of the 35 city centers were running far behind weekly quotas: Washington had had two of its slowest days since blood collecting began; one day in Brooklyn, 417 people turned up but 463 did not even bother to telephone; Atlanta reported nine different reasons why donors failed to show up. Sample: “I’ll tell you frankly. Two members of my family made donations and they had a little black mark on their arms for a week afterward.”*

* Lieut. Commander K. P. A. Taylor (retired) reported in the Naval Medical Bulletin that the larger the city, the smaller the per-capita donation. Harrisburg (pop. 84,000) gives a pint a week for every no citizens, New York (pop. 7,500,000) gives one pint per 1,570. Commander Taylor thought big cities would give more if they had more than one center apiece.