The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-10-22
SCIENCE MAY AUGMENT
STATURE OF CHILDREN
Chicago Tribune.)

]
feeding tkem on egg yolks and hbi
tun.
Yolk of egg contains a substance
called 'lecithin," which, as has beer
newly discovered, is. in the language
of the German scientists, a veritabl'
grow stuff" Fed to human beings
| or other animals it has a marked
I tendency to accelerate development o.
! flesh tissue and bOny structure. Fol
many years past St. Bernard pups
reared for exhibitions at shows nave
been systematically stuffed witt eggs
: to increase their size, but, though the
, process was notably effective. NOBODY
| suspected why. The reason lay simply
in the lecithin contained in the yolks.
! DIR. H. w. Wiley, the government
chief chemist, and his assistant, Dr.
Maxwell, have performed some elaDo-
rate experiments with the grow STUFF.
So, likewise. have DR.. Koch of the Uni
versity of Chicago and Dr.
Danilewsky of Paris, who have utll-
! lied many kinds of animals. from frogs
to chickens, in their Investigations
They found that puppies fed with reg
ular doses of lecithin not only grew
faster than pups reared in the ordl-
nary way. but were stronger, more
lively, developed thicker and silkier
hair. and seemed to be perceptibly
more intelligent In order to avoid err
ror as far as possible the puppies were
invariably taken from the same litter,
some being dosed and others not, and,
apart from the special treatment, were
brought up under exactly the same
conditions.
Dr. Danilewsky found tie tadpoleS
dosed with lecthin grew much faster
treatment while frogs eggs placed IN
water containing one fifteen undredth
part of the substance gained in htty-
four days 300 per cent more in weight
than other eggs of the same batch IN
ordinary water. In otEer words, the
lecithin eggs grew four times as fast.
Similar results were obtained by Pro
fessor Shinkishi Hatai of the Univer-
sity of Chicago.
DR.. Koch tried the grow stuff upon
guinea pigs and rats. Having boiled
the lecithin in distilled water to make
it sterile he administered it to the ami
mails through the mouth and by in
jecting it beneath the skin in differ
ent series of experiments. TIE AMI
mails under trial were invariably OF
the same litter, were fed on the same
kind of food Ga plain vegetable diet
of corn, carrots and cabbage), and
were weighed every two days. Taking
an average it was found that the
lecithin rats grew 60 per cent faster
than the rats reared in the ordinary
way, and it was about the same with
the guinea pigs.
The results obtained by DR.. Koch in
dictated that the grow stuff worked
better when given by the mouth than
when administered hypOdermically.
This ought to be considered fortunate,
inasmuch as children, if their growth
is to be encourag ed by such means,
will find it much easier to swallow
tie doses than to take them in the
other way. DR.. DanileWSky found
that doses given once in five hours
served the purpose with young chick
enc, the DEVELOPMENT of which was
markedly accelerated by the medicine;
but as yet. the trials have not been
extended to babies, and much remains
to be learned in regard to the best
method of treatment for growing boys
and girls.
One of the most interesting conclu
lions drawn by DR.. Danilewsky is that !
ecithin acts upon the brain. Indeed, it |
eens to be actually brain food. It's |
influence as a stimulant is eXerted di |
ectly upon the blood, which is thereby |
aused to deposit the materials that |
'uild the bones and other tissues of |
he body. OF course, all the material !
hat goes to make growth is originally
n solution in the blood, from which 1T !
5 deposited in the form of bone. mus
lie tissue, etc. If, while growth is still
Ding on. the rate of deposition can De
celebrated the human being or other
nimal will grow faster. Apparently
his is the way in which the lecithin
IL 81
Lecithin is defined by DIR. II. w.
Wiley as fat in which PHOSPHORUS
as. replaced part of the hydrogen In
nipple language, it is an organic com
ound of PHOSPHORUS. While egg
oIks contain an extraordinary per
sntage of it, it is found also in seeds.
herein it is stored to furnish material
,r the growth of the embryo plant
lst as in the egg it helps the develop
tent of the unmatched chick. 1t is, in
lct, natures own grow stuff" and
,curs wherever food is stored for the
Sc of the embryo plant or animal
rom it, DR.. Wiley says, we mainly !
srive the PHOSPHORUS which helps TO
1urish the brain, nerves and other
ssues of the body.
Drs. Wiley and Maxwell have per-
rmed some interesting experiments
it'll eggs to find out what becomes of
e PHOSPHORUS in the lecithin of the
Xix. 1t was a difficult problem of ,
emical analysis, but its solution
owed that during the process of in
baton the organic PHOSPHORUS of
e lecithin is transformed into the in I
ganic PHOSPHORUS of the bones of the 4
lex. This was ascertained beyond
estion by analyzing first the fresh
g and afterwards Analysing a newly /
tched chicken. I
rhe process by which human being
other animal grows is something of :
and nobody knows why de- 4
lopment comes to an end at a certain 4
lge of life. 1t is supposed that an
igator continues to grow throughout
entire life, and the same may be
lie of some other reptiles, but the =
owth period of a mammal is usually .
lited to about one fifth of the term 1
it's natural existence. If development
ring that period can be accelerated
: size of the animal at maturity viii =
greater. Hence it is thought that II
ldren judiciously dosed with lecfthn k
" in this way be made to grow tall 3
and more muscular Perhaps, in e
I'd, by this simple means we may yet 81
able to create race of giants, such IS
the people described in the story OF Hs
G. Wells, who owe their enormous
e to wonderful food. rs
MARTTNEAU'S ADVICE. y
(Cbiraoo ~