The orange people.
THE human race comes in various colors: white, yellow, brown, black, and all graduations in between. The American aborigines are described as Red Men and physicians are accustomed to seeing people gray with shock or blue with cyanosis. Yet to see a human as orange as an orange is so startling as to deserve comment—and to see two such cases merits reporting them, especially since no previous emphasis on such bizarre discoloration of patients can be found in medical literature. The parents of orange are the primary colors yellow and red, a fact as old as the history of pigments. Certain foodstuffs have a high content of the yellow pigment carotene, such as carrots and squash; and certain others have a high content of the red pigment lycopene, notably tomatoes and beets. Yellowish discoloration of the skin and other body tissues with carotene is referred to as carotenemia, a not
Carrot addiction.
OBJECTIVE
A case report of carrot addiction is presented with a review of the literature and comment on the role of beta carotene in addictive behaviour.


CLINICAL PICTURE
The addiction occurred in a 49-year-old woman under conditions of stress due to marital problems, leading to a depressive illness and increased smoking. The patient maintained that the sensations of carrot craving and withdrawal were quite distinct from those associated with smoking.


TREATMENT
The patient was advised to record her daily carrot consumption.


OUTCOME
The patient did not return for several months, but stopped eating carrots after an operation, at which time she also stopped smoking.


CONCLUSION
Compusive carrot eating, regarded as a rare condition, has received scant documentation, unlike hypercarotenemia due to unusual diets or food fads. Nervousness, craving, insomnia, waterbrash and irritability are associated with withdrawal from excessive carrot eating. The basis for the addiction is believed to be beta carotene, found in carrots. Does carrot eating, an aggressively oral activity, merely act as a behavioural substitute for smoking? Or does beta carotene contain a chemical element that replicates the addictive component of nicotine? Further study of this unusual but intriguing addiction may reveal more about the basis of all addictions, with particular implications for the cessation of cigarette smoking.
Immunization with Brucella melitensis Rev 1 against Brucella ovis infection of rams.
The efficacy of Brucella Melitensis Rev 1 vaccine (Rev 1) for the prophylaxis of Brucella ovis ram epididymitis was evaluated. Twenty-nine 3-month-old rams were vaccinated with 2 X 10(9) Rev 1 and 14 were revaccinated with 5 X 10(8) at 14 months of age. Six rams remained unvaccinated as a control group. All rams were challenged with 5 X 10(8) B. ovis at 21 months of age. Before being slaughtered 8 weeks later, only one vaccinated ram developed epididymitis while four of the six control rams developed testicular alterations. Genital and selected extragenital organs and lymph nodes were removed at slaughter and inoculated on selective media. B. ovis was isolated from 26.6% of the vaccinated rams, 21.4% of the revaccinated rams and 100% of control rams. Portions of epididymis, testes and vesicular glands were also used for pathological studies. More severe lesions were observed in control rams than in vaccinated ones. In conclusion, these results show that vaccination of young lambs, followed or not by revaccination, is a suitable method for the prophylaxis of B. ovis infection of rams.