Medicine: The Dangerous Look?

Fashion’s New Look got a withering glare from square-jawed Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, 54, of the University of Illinois’ professional schools (TIME, Jan. 13).Tight corsets, growled Ivy to a group of Jacksonville, ILL. colleagues, are a direct cause of stomach ulcers in women. Moreover, he added, if he could get $5,000 and 40 monkeys together, he would put the monkeys into tight corsets for two years just to prove his theory.

The doctor would corset his monkeys in waspish plaster casts (real girdles would not stay on), and X-ray them periodically. At week’s end, Ivy thought he had a line on his monkeys: the Illinois Department of Public Health has a surplus shipment. No one had yet come forward with the $5,000.