CLely REPOSITORY LOS Moras MAT CRB COLLECTION ((~ / Y soxne — LL23 ( ~/ . FOLDER CASE AMETILES, April 12, 19% Dr. Alvin C. Graves ofc 7.1 Eniwetok, M. I. Dear Al: As I told you I was going to, I stopped off and spent all day Thursday, the Sth, at Kwaj spending most of my time on looking over the natives and talking with Cronkite ard his people. I was very much reassured to find that the areas eround the necks, armpits, foreheads, etc., seemed to be rapidly returning to their normal color. You will remember that when I saw them ons veek previously i was a little eoncerned that these areas might remain depigmented permanently. It ia my impression now that there will remain no scars or depignented areas of any sort. The white cell counts and platelet counts seem to be slow in returning to norml. There is a possibility that the surprisingly large amount of which they got into their systems my be a factor in this, The amount of 1431, as well as other isotopes, was considerably less than the amount which would be given, for example, in a therapeutic dose. It was, however, not inconsiderahble and added to the rest of the exposure it might be playing a part. It is my feeling that this is a atter more for academic and scientific interest than of significance in the prognosis of the individual patients. The white cell counts and platelet counts had not maintained a definite treni back to normal levels. It was quite definite, however, that they were showing no tendency to fall any lower and I am convinced in my own mind that they will return to normal within the coming few weeks. The low white cell counts quite obviously are not affecting the patients’ health adversely; they all continue to be happy and co-operative. The lesions on the feet which first appeared a little over two weeks ago last week seemed to be healing very satisfactorily. These were apparently about the only skin manifestations that caused any discomfort. However, you can't walk on feet that ere blistered ani fissured and not be aware of it. I talked by phones today to John Bugher and he will attempt to have the New York Office send us some of the Japanese urines, When our samples from Kwaj errived here the boys put some of the material immediately into the scintillation arn counter and discovered some pretty energetic gamma activity. On evaporation, most of this had disappeared, indicating the presence of a volatile isotope. This was rather promtly identified as the iodine, This, of course, is something which NYOO could easily miss if they do not have the proper instruments.