Medicine: Big Beat

Boston's famed Heart Specialist Paul Dudley White, 73, is almost as eager as was Captain Ahab to sink a harpoon into the mightiest leviathan of the deep, but for a different reason: he wants to record its electrocardiogram. Dr. White has logged the ECG of a small (only 1ΒΌ ton) Beluga whale in Alaska (TIME, Aug. 25, 1952), but has been thwarted in efforts to get his electrodes into the bigger grey whale off California. Last week he was within a heartbeat of an equally desirable prize, and missed by a fluke.

The whale...

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