Many Meetings

The judgment of the learned journalists who regularly report the doings of U. S. scientists was taxed last week when they were obliged to decide which of five significant meetings they would attend and report: The American Chemical Society in Manhattan, the American Association of Physical Anthropology in Philadelphia, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society in Washington, the American Association on Mental Deficiency in Chicago. Consequently a savant's paper had to be of rare interest to attract attention. Here follow summaries of some pertaining to Medicine and the business of living:

Death Prognosticor. Dr. Felix Bernstein, a German refugee in Manhattan, developed a machine which measures the elasticity of the crystalline lens of the eye. According to the elasticity of a person's lens, Dr. Bernstein can tell whether that person will live (barring infections, disease and accidents) until ripe old age, or will drop dead from heart failure or apoplexy around the age of 50.

Swollen Brains & Epilepsy. The behavior of a high-frequency electric current shot through the head of an epileptic differs from the same current shot through a normal head. The difference is due to the swelling of the epileptic's brain, decided Drs. Ernst Spiegel & Mono, Spiegel-Adolf (wife) of Philadelphia. They found that they could shrink such brains and decrease convulsions by feeding epileptics meats and other acid-producing foods. Alkali producing foods, they found, excite epileptics, increase their tendency to fits.

Fish & Vigor. After 30 years' study of primitive people, Dr. West on A. Price, Cleveland dentist, concluded that aborigines who eat coarse food which contains large amounts of minerals are strong and healthy. "The natives of the South Sea Islands are a hardy, upright race. Their women of 85 are as vigorous as American women of 50. They have but few wrinkles on their faces, they retain their teeth and live strenuous lives. Their principal food is fish, which is rich in mineral content, the building material for the body. Expectant mothers eat raw fish."

Rancidity Preventive. Now that they have learned how to prevent it, chemists revealed that bacon, potato chips, cakes, candy and similar foods become rancid if wrapped in ordinary transparent cellulose sheets. Cause: ultraviolet light which reaches the food through the transparent wrapper. Cure: tinting cellulose wrapping paper with a faint yellow dye which obstructs ultraviolet light.

Selenium-Poisoned Wheat-Selenium, a poisonous metallic element related to sulphur, has been found in such quantities in the soil of Wyoming and South Dakota that Dr. Horace Greeley Byers, Government soil chemist, considered a warning advisable. Said he: "In a wide variety of plants, including wheat, growing upon those areas, selenium was present in concentrations ranging from traces up to quantities which are deadly to animals. In many cases the selenium present produced chronic diseases which may ultimately cause death. . . . Preventive measures should be taken. It seems, however, that no serious concern need be felt except in the areas concerned. In the general market it seems improbable that any serious concentration of poison food is likely to reach any individual."

Tea. An average human being may drink from five to ten pints of tea daily without ill effect, decided Dietrich P. Fisher of Brooklyn.

Intestinal Worms do not thrive in fresh air. That fact led Lewis W. Butz & Dr. William Alfred LaLande of Philadelphia to make 300 wormy puppies swallow some drugs which released oxygen in their guts. Worms left immediately. The drugs: terpineol, diheptanol peroxide, ozonized olive oil, ozonized cotton seed oil. When the same drugs were poured into a tumbler full of the round worms which infest babies, the worms promptly died. But up to last week Researchers Butz & LaLande had not dared to try the drugs on babies.

Liver Extract for Pneumonia. People who suffer from pernicious anemia can keep well by 1) eating ten pounds of liver a month at a cost of about $5.50. 2) swallowing $17 worth of liver extract a month, or 3) taking one hypodermic injection of liver concentrate a month. The concentrate costs $1.17 a dose, not counting the doctor's bill. Dr. William Parry Murphy of Boston, who won one-third of a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning pernicious anemia, last week stressed the little known point that liver also stimulates the growth of white blood corpuscles. Therefore, said he, liver concentrate can be used to advantage to fight pneumonia and other infections.

Soy Beans & Babies. To Dr. Willard Myron Allen, 30, serious, bespectacled chemist of the University of Rochester, Eli Lilly & Co. gave $1,000 for isolating the female hormone, progestin. Progestin is essential for the creation of perfect children. Since Dr. Allen showed the way, women who lack progestin can buy it from druggists. Manufacturers get their supplies from the ovaries of pigs. Last week Dr. Allen retailed the important news, fresh from Danzig, that Dr. Adolph Butenandt had discovered a way of making progestin from the wax of soy beans.

Rate of Growth. If the first child in a family grows rapidly, all following children will most probably do likewise. Rate of growth is a matter of heredity.--Dr. Franz Boas, of Manhattan.

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