Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 December 1937 — Page 4

New Developments i in ‘the World of Science ‘Explained

~NEW APPROACH TO STUDY OF CANCERHINTED IN REPORT ON

INVESTIGATION INTO LEUKEMIA

Dr. M. W. Emmel’s Experiments Have Been Conducted on Animals and No Application of His Work to Human

Diseases Can

Be Made Yet.

(Copyright, 1937, Science Service) Better understanding of two malignant diseases, leukemia and cancer, perhaps even a method of remedying leukemia for future possibilities suggested by the report of

Dr. M. W. Emmel, University of Florida.

Dr. Emmel’s in-

vestigations have been made on laboratory animals and no application of his work to human cancer and leukemia can

be made yet. Dr. Emmel reported the production of leukemia, fatal disease characterized by overproduction of white blood cells, in a variety of animals, by injecting into the veins small numbers of bacteria of the typhoid and paratyphoid groups. The leukemia developed in from two to nine months, preceded by a period in which the blood cells de-

stroyed themselves. This self-destruction, called autolysis, can be started by injection of dead bacteria as well as living ones and by a number of chemicals. The process, Dr. Emmel believes, opens “a new avenue of approach to the study of cancer and possibly other diseases of man and animals.” An antiserum, made from the tissues’of animals of the same species, Dr. Emmel also reported, will cure the majority of cases of all types of leukemia in the chicken and of lymphatic leukemia in animals.

Malta Fever Is Topic Of Bacteriologist

Malta fever sounds like a strange disease that might be picked up by the traveler in foreign lands, but there is plenty of opportunity for acquiring this unpleasant ailment in the United States, Miss Alice C. Evans, senior bacteriologist of the

TU. 8S. Public Health Service’s National Institute of Health, reported today. Miss Evans has been a chronic sufferer from the malady, acquired in the course of her investigations of it. In one year, about 2000 cases were reported in this country. There are no figures on the actual total number, which may be much higher than the reported number. Chronic cases rarely are diagnosed correctly, Miss Evans said. Some patients had had the disease for 20 years before the correct diagnosis was made, “Symptoms of chronic Malta fever, or undulant fever or brucellosis as it is also known, are exhaustion, insomnia, irritability and a great variety of aches and pains,” she said. “Because of the symptoms the disease is often wrongly diagnosed as neurasthenia. A mild attack of the disease may be diagnosed as ‘flu’ More severe attacks may be confused with tuberculosis, typhoid fever, malaria or rheumatism, No specific cure of proved efficiency exists, Miss Evans declared. It is, therefore, necessary jo learn how to avoid getting the disease. .

Cites Great Root Pressures Developed

Pressure enough to send sap fo the top of ai California Big Tree, equivalent " more than 100 pounds per square inch, was developed in the roots of humble tomato roots which never had been attached to tomato plants. Genuinely sensational experiments, which overturn one' of the most widely accepted theories in the whole field of plant science, were reported here today by Dr. Philip R. White of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. The research was conducted in the Institute's laboratories at Princeton, N. J. Some time ago, Dr. White discovered how to keep roots growing after they had been detached from the parent plant, somewhat after the manner of the famous chickheart tissue cultures kept going for many years by Dr. Alexis Carrell. He used tomato roots. He noticed as his “orphan” roots continued to grow in their culture fluid, that they contained the same kind of sap-conducting vessels possessed by normal roots, though there was apparently no work for them. to do. - It occurred to him that here was & chance to test out one of the most disputed points in botany, the old ‘theory of root pressure. Once favored, this theory had been abandoned during the last 60 years in favor of the idea that the sap was pulled upward through the plant by suction from the leaves, where evaporation was going. on. The earliest root-pressure experiments, perfomed by Stephen Hales early in the 18th Century, showed pressures of only 14 atmospheres. Nobody had ever been able to equal that record since. And this pressure was nowhere nearly enough to account for the rise of sap in tall

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trees and long vines. So after a time, the theory was given up. But Dr. White had roots that had Jever supplied sap to any stem. With these he decided to make a new and critical test. He attached them strongly to narrow tubes in which the sap pressure could be balanced against the pressure of a column of mercury. With no apparent difficulty, the roots balanced 90, then 100, then 125 pounds per square inch of pressure. The apparatus failed at the higher pressures, but the réots seemed to be quite ready to go on to still higher figures. Dr. White stated that he is now redesigning his apparatus, to give his tomato roots a chance to show what they really can do. He offered no explanation of the great root pressures he has been able to demonstrate. He added, however, that he and his colleagues are making a start, at least, at tiying to find out. -

Cites Improvements in

Astronomical Instruments

Astronomers are improving their yardsticks of the universe, which consist of measurements of the brightness of the stars, Dr. Frederick H. Seares of the Carnegie Insfitution’s Mt. Wilson Observatory, California, explained in his address as retiring vice president of the astronomical section. A vast number of variables enter into determining how bright is a star, among them the human eye or photographic plate used for recording, the condition of the atmosphere, the telescope used, and many other factors. The photoelectric cell, which is independent of traditional methods of photographic star photometry, is also being used with success. The true or intrinsic brightness of a star compared with apparent brightness hy means of science’s faithful inverse-square law gives the distance of the star. This is a useful astronomical measuring method, he added. Not content with measuring merely the light from stars, astronomers also are using bolometers, radiometers and thermocouples to determine the heat and all other radiations from stars. This gives useful information, but Dr. Seares explained that for the great bulk of the stars, measures of brightness are still of major interest for charte ing the distances and distribution within the amazing universe of the telescope.

Human Inner Surface Areas Vital, Chemist Says

The inner surface areas of the human .and animal body are the battleground of disease toxins and antitoxins, Dr. Harry Sobotka, chief chemist bf Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, said today. : “Most people know their height in inches or their weight in pounds,” said Dr. Sobotka, “but nobody bothers with measuring his or her surface area. Yet these areas—in the lungs, the stomach, the intestine, and even the surface ares of the red corpuscles in the blood—are vital to living.” New knowledge of chemistry, gleaned from such “thin film” researches as those of Dr. Irving Langmuir, Nobelist chemist of the General Electric Co., has important; bearing on the role played by the enzymes, vitamins, hormones ancl toxins and antitoxins, Seclared 1 Dr. Sobotka. Few people realize, he indicated, that the surface area’ of the human lungs is nearly 2000 square feet: or that the intestines contain a total area of nearly 50. square feet: or that the area of: the red corpuscles in the blood stream of the body have an area equal to nearly three-quarters of an acre! The role of viruses, hormones and enzymes, he added, rests on their ability to distribute themselves over large surfaces in very thin films which may be only a molecule or two in thickness. Thus tiny amounts of these crucial chemicals affect Seemisndous surface areas in the

Agricultural Conference Week Scheduled at Purdue

Times Special LAFAYETTE, Dec. 28.—Beekeepers are to hear of the observations made by Prof. R. H. Kelty, Michigan Agricultural College, when he speaks during Agricultural Confer. ence Week at Purdue University, Jan, 11, 12 and 12. Prof. Kelty will give three lectures covering management of the apiary throughout the year.

'| devoted - most attention.

. Chemists’ Official to Speak

Dr. Charles A. Kraus (above) was to speak today on “The Present

Status of the Theory of Electrolytes” before a session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Kraus is a native of Knightstown, a member of Brown University faculty and is president-elect of the American Chemical Society,

ohne of the science organizations meeting here this week.

Dr. Kraus succeéds Prof. Frank C. Whitmore of Pennsylvania State

College as head of the chemists’ organization.

He is winner of three

of the chemical society’s honorary medals and is noted for his work in making possible commercial production of ethyl gasoline:

Ethics, Conklin

(Copyright, 1937,

Co-Operate in Application of Urges Delegates

Science Service)

Co-operation of science with education and religion in applying ethics to solve the world’s current problems was urged today by Dr. Edwin Grant Conklin, American Association for the Advancement of Science

retiring president.

He spoke last night at the As- ¢

sociation’s first general session at Murat Temple, following a reception by association officials, Governor Townsend and Mayor Boetcher. Dr. Conklin is professor emeritus of biology at Princeton University, executive officer of the American 18 | Philosophical Society, and Science Service president. Dr. Harold G. Moulton, Brookings Institution president, yesterday denied all theories that “we are living in an abundance economy now or that we have the resources and knowledge to immediately do so were they all put into use.” Terming “dull and fruitless” ate tempts to make science the handmaiden of religion, he emphasized that “science is vitally concerned with ethics, the religion of science.”

The words expressing the ethics of the great scientists, among them Pavlov, Pasteur, and Tyndall, were shown by Dr. Conklin te contain ideals of conduct and character similar to that taught by great religious leaders. “Often the substitution of the word ‘truth’ for ‘God’ will bring them into, agreement,” he said.

Holds Standards Different

Militarists and dictators have no right to seize upon Darwin’s principle of natural selection as justification of their philosophy that might makes right, Dr. Conklin warned. “Darwin himself repudiated this extension of his principle to the struggle between races and nations of men,” Dr. Conklin said. “Those who attempt to extend it into the field of intellectual, social and moral qualities should remember that ‘the standards of fitness are wholly different in these fields. Physically, the fittest is the most viable and most capable of leaving offspring. Intellectually, the fittest is the most rational. Socially, the fittest is the most ethical, “To aftempt to measure intellectual or social fitness by standards of physical fitness is hopelessly to confuse the whole question, for human evolution has progressed in these 'three distinct paths, Man owes his unique position in nature to this three-fold evolution, and although the factors of physical, intellectual and social progress are always balanced, one against another, they are not mutually exclusive. i Makes Reply to Hutchins

“Intelligence has become a prime factor in evolution. Human selection, as practiced either by the hit or miss process of ‘trial and error’ or the vastly more rapid and less wasteful method of remembered experience, is just as natural as the ‘natural’ variety to which Darwin We are continually improving on nature, as shown in agricultvwe, industry, medic¢ing and education.” To the recent attack by Dr. Rob-

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ert Maynard Hutchins, University of Chicago president, that science is a failure in the educational process, Dr, Conklin replied: “Those who have never experienced the discipline and ennobling effects of scientific studies fear that science will destroy our civilization and ‘are. calling upon educators to repent and to return to the good old subjects of classical learning. It was not science that caused the decay of former civilizations, nor was it in the power of classic art, literature ‘and phils

osophy to save those civilizations.

“Certainly there are no other

studies than science that distinguish so sharply truth from error, evidence from opinion, reason from emotion; none that teach a greater reverence for truth nor inspire more laborious and persistent search for it. Great is phils osophy, for it is an attempt at a synthesis of all knowledge, but if it is true philosophy it must be built upon - science which ‘is tested knowledge.” All who believe freedom and responsibility are essential to all progress were called upon by Dr. Conklin to use “their utmost influence to see that intellectual freedom shall not perish from the earth.” Science, he said, should stand for freedom, especially in those countries where force, war and unutterable ferocity are used to "compel acceptance of political, social or scientific creeds.

Points Out Practical Aspects

“In its practical aspects,” said Dr. Conklin, “the ethics of science includes everything that concerns human welfare and social relations. It includes eugenics and all possible means of improving human heredity through the discovery and application of the principles of genetics, It is concerned with the best means of attaining and maintaining an optimum population. It includes all those agencies such as experimental biology and medicine, endocrinology, nutrition and child study, which promise to improve bodies and minds. It includes the many scientific aspects of economics, politics and government. It is concerned especially with education of a kind that establishes habits of rational thinking, generous feeling and courageous doing.”

STATE EROSION

LAID TO HEAVY RAINS IN SOUTH

Precipitation Unequal, Says Dr. Visher in Address To Scientists.

Indiana rainfall, unequally dis-

| tributed, has worked a hardship on |

the southern part as compared to the northern section, Dr. Stephen S. Visher, Indiana University professor, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science today. To it can be traced the comparative average poverty and backwardness of the average southern Indiana family as compared to the average northern family, he said.

Stresses Regional Contracts

Prof. Visher, in one of the latest studies of rainfall and its consequences in Indiana, said “the intensity of rainfall is of critical importance affecting its usefulness. “Although Indiana is a small, inland state, with little contrast in elevation, and remote from mountains or the sea, there are wellmarked regional contrasts in rainfall intensity. Analyses of the official data in many different ways nearly all show a marked southward increase in rainfall intensity, especially during the cooler months. “Southern Indiana has several too many times as many rainstorms of the duration and intensity studied as has northern Indiana. For example, falls of 3 inches in one day, and of 6 inches within six consecutive days are more than 10 times as frequent in southwestern as in northwestern Indiana. “An analysis of soil erosion indicated that upon comparable slopes, surfaces and soils erosion is decidedly more rapid in southern than in northern Indiana. A considerable part of this difference presumably is due to the difference in the amount and intensity of the rainfall.

Points to Poor Yields

“The decidedly lower average crop yields upon comparable slopes in southern than in northern Indiana apparently are also related to the more unfavorable rainfall distribution. In the south a much smaller percentage of the rainfall is useful to the crops. “Largely as a result of the poorer crop yields associated with the drier and poorer soil, there are noteworthy regional contrasts in the percentage of the land.in farms and crops. “The comparative poverty and backwardness ot the average family

of southern Indiana seemingly is,

therefore, related to the unfortunate. rainfall distribution :

Times Spociat : BLOOMINGTON, Dec. 28.-~The 59th.annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society is to be held here tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. The meeting 1s to be in conjunction with those of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Indianapolis. Acting President Herman B. Wells of Indiana University is to give a reception tomorrow afternoon. The first council meeting is scheduled for that evening.

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