One possible cause for the current low University illness rate is a more sensible approach by veterans to the problems of adequate and regulated sleep and examination studying, Dr. Arlie V. Bock, Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene, stated yesterday.

Although this reason is only a conjectural one, Professor Bock said, it might very well be that the older veterans take better care of themselves, don't skip breakfasts, and know that a more three or four hours of sleep a night will lead to sickness.

Evidence of the small quota of winter sicknesses are the Stillman lists, Professor Bock claimed, which show, on a typical day, only 17 men at the Infirmary, five in hospitals, and 11 resting at home, and which show few of the usual respiratory diseases.

No Nauseating Exams

In addition, the Hygiene Department has not had the former crop of men with "anxieties over blue books," in the form of nausea, tremors, and other nervous conditions, Professor Bock announced, attributing this fact to a lack of the last-minute examination cramming formerly practiced by a younger college group.

Meanwhile, doctors are becoming perplexed over the absence of an epidemic of influenza predicted last May, Professor Bock stated. Reports from the Boston area hospitals show a surprising lack in all three forms of influenza, the pandemic variety, and the "A" and "B" types.

Answering recent queries as to what the Hygiene Department would do in the case of an epidemic of the pandemic influenza, by far the most dangerous of the varieties, Professor Bock stated that "we have nothing to offer against it, since there is no medication that is known to prevent the disease."