Evening star., 1924-06-15
BY HAROLD X. PHILIPS,

H1LE calamity how ers
NN have been predicting dire
v fates for modern genera
tfons and pointing with
trembling hand to the quickened pace
OF the new era a. the sure road to
destruction, science has added many
years to the normal span of human
life.
But how? Those who have pauseI
to ask that question may have found
partial answers in many quarters.
knowledge has been broadened. ma
chinery has lifted tremendous bur-
dens from the backs of men, and gov
ernmentS have learned that it is ma
tional economy to protect their man
power through wise legislation
All of these things have contrib
uted, but the greatest contributions
were made by the men and women
who studied and toiled, unnoticed and
unsung, in the solitude of the efficient
research laboratories, burning low
the oil Of their own lives. looking for
answers to the great questions OF
life. its origin and its needs.
The department of embryology of
the Carnegie Institution of Washing
ton occupies part of one of the build
ings belonging to Johns Hopkins Uni
versity in Baltimore, and was located
there because its prox nifty to one
of the worlds greatest medica!
schools would be decidedly advan-
tageous.
Twenty years ago few men had more
than fragmentary understanding OF
the true conditions under which life de-
veloped. Vital questions vet remain to
be answered. but today knowledge in
that direction has progressed to the
point where it is quite common for one
of the specialists attached to the de-
partment of embryology to make wax
duplicates Of many parts of a human
body even before that part has begun
to assume recognizable shape or ap-
pearance.
There the specialists have learned how
the organs of the human body evolve
from the third week of growth up to
and after the period Of it's birth in a
fully formed babe. And their labora-
tories are open to the students and in
vestigators from this and other coun-
| tries
1t constitutes a center to which those
| who may be concerned with some par
ticular problem of human development
may come and have access to the store
I ~ h1 p1t
make personal visit, many volumes OF
books have been published. making the
knowledge Of the department Of embry-
ology available to the world.
Lay visitors, or rather those who are
| not students or doctors of medicine, are
seldom accorded the privilege of tour
through the corridors of the department
Of embryology. 1t is busy place, and
! the scientists there have more impor-
tant things to fill their minutes than act
| ing as guides to curious persons. But
the few who are admitted never leave
without being bewildered by the marvels
they see.
For instance, the doctor who is
| showing you through may very glibly
| remark that when you were four
weeks old-referring, of course, to
your prenatal age-you had gill clefts
| just like fish. If you are not be-
liever in the theory of evolution and
smile with incredulity, he can very
| easily hustle you over to a case and
prove by means of both enlarged
models and photograph that he is in
dead earnest and perfectly right. Be
cause what are now your ears were
once gill clefts. And so you would
learn that your ears were formed be-
! fore your eyes.
You may then learn that up to the