One More Clue

In the endless search for a criminal substance which can be proved guilty of causing the explosive growth of cancer cells, suspicion has settled on an enzyme, hyaluronidase, already known to be a "spreading factor." Last week a slim, blonde, 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Wyoming announced that she had picked up another jot of evidence against hyaluronidase: it is found in abnormally large amounts of sarcoma (cancer of the connective tissues) in mice --a disease much like human sarcoma.

Mrs. Rosalie Reynolds did the work for her Master of Science degree. It was a hard job, because hyaluronidase is an elusive substance that has never been isolated in pure form. Mrs. Reynolds could find none in tissue taken from healthy mice. She induced cancer in 50 mice and produced uniformly heavy concentrations of the enzyme. The percentage was equally high regardless of the cancer's size or the substance used to produce it.

Mrs. Reynolds' evidence was not strong enough to convict hyaluronidase. But it was enough to touch off more inquiries in the century's biggest piece of science detection.

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