We compared race disparities in health services use in a national sample of adults from the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Project, a 2003 survey of adult residents from a low-income integrated urban community in Maryland. In the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data, African Americans were less likely to have a health care visit compared with Whites. However, in the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities Project, the integrated community, African Americans were more likely to have a health care visit than Whites. The race disparities in the incidence rate of health care use among persons who had at least one visit were similar in both samples. Our findings suggest that disparities in health care utilization may differ across communities and that residential segregation may be a confounding factor.

We introduce the Situational Awe Scale (SAS), a self-report measure to assess the momentary, phenomenological experience of awe. An exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 suggested a four-factor structure (connection, oppression, chills, and diminished self), and provided initial evidence of the measure’s convergent and criterion validity. Study 2 provided evidence for the structural validity of the SAS by confirming the factor structure uncovered in Study 1, and replicated the convergent and criterion validity evidence. Study 3 established that the SAS truly assesses situational awe by demonstrating that SAS scores varied in response to situations that elicit more versus less awe. Finally, Study 4 extended the evidence for the convergent and criterion validity of the SAS to a field setting (Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago). Across four studies, we constructed and validated the SAS, laying the groundwork for fruitful future investigation into the determinants and outcomes of awe.

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MEDICALJOURNAL the treatment of whooping-cough, there is one point which should be borne in mind when prescribing it. We have already had one case of atropine poisoning in an 18-monthold baby who swallowed the contents of a 10-ml. bottle. If eumydrin is prescribed it would be safer, for home use, in the aqueous solution.-I, am, etc., Colchester. ELEANOR M. SINGER.

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