Evening star., 1928-04-25
MEDAL TO WALCOTT
PROVIDED IN FUND
Honor for Smithsonian ex-
Secretary to Encourage
Early Life Study.
Establishment of medal in memory

Establishment of a medal in memory
cf the late DIR. Charles +. walcott. for
FINER secretary of the Smithsonian lnStl-
tuition, to be awarded annually lor the
promotion of research in pre~Cambrlan
life was announced today at the an
fnual business meeting of the National
Academy of Sciences.
The medal is provided for by fund
OF $4,000 placed in the custody or the
academy by Mrs Mary Beaux Walcott
widow of the late Smithsonian secre-
tary. II is to be awarded each year TO
the person between u and IS years OF
AGE. who. in the judgment OF the
academy, renders the most ConSnicu~
GUS service i'll tracing the origin OF llie
on earth beyond the pre-Camorian
yocks,
The late Secretary Walcott made his
most notable contribution to science
hy discovering indisputable evidence
that living things had existed at inc
time these rocks many millions OF years
old. had been laid down. Until very re-
Gently they represented the earliest
stage Of life known on the earth, but
evi6ences have been coming 10 hght
uurInS the past few years which lnoi-
cate the probability that life had exist
ed long before. and was in fairly ad-
J vanced stage, when these rocks were
laid down DR., ]. S. Ames. OF johns
Hopkins University, this morning was
elected treasurer OF the National Acaa-
cGny
Living Electrical Phenomenon.
The body ot any living thing is an
Electric battery composed Of millions ot
other electric batteries, the cells. and
living is essentially an electrical phe-
nnmenon. it was brought out in Two
tpaners read before the National Acad-
! emv yesterday afternoon.
The first of these was by Dr. ". j.
V. Osterhout of the Rockefeller Insti-
tute. who propounded new theory as
to the construction and electric action
Of cells. the bricks" out Of which the
body is constructed.
In man. an animal and most plants
these cells are microscopic and conse.
cuently experiments with them are lin
tied. DR.. OSterhout told the academy.
however that he and his associate. DR.
e. s Harris. had been able 10 secure
from a professor at George Washington
University specimens of the fresh water
plant Niteila. some of which were as
much as eight inches long and a great
number of which we're as large as hen
eggs. containing 20 TO 80 cubic cent?
meters Of cell matter. These strange
plants are found all over the country,
but those with the largest cells seem
10 occur mostly in the fresh water
Streams and ponds about Washington.
Working with these, DR.. OSterhout
showed that the cell consists of an out
er wall OF cellulose. then a thin wall
Of watery liquid. then wall Of proto-
plasn. then another wall of water liquid
then another wall Of protoplasm, all
surrounding a reservoir OF watery cell
sap.
Act Like Batteries.
But the tests showed that not only
the cell itself but the two walls Of prot
oplasm acted like batteries, one posi-
tive and the other negative, the effects
of which balance each other. He was
able 10 Kill the outer wall of protoplasm
with chloroform. thus destroying the
negative battery. and 10 observe by ex-
perimental methods the kick against
the water wall by the positive battery
which remained alive. Then he re-
yeTsed the experiment, killing the inner
wall first.
Considering each cell OF the body as
. battery and the brain, consisting of
millions Of cells, as a larger battery
Or George w Grille Of Cleveland showed
essentially electrical
He worked with rabbits. experimenting
first with the effects Of sleepiessness. II
had been an observed fact that no
animal could live indefinitely without
sleep. a period when the batteries seem
10 be recharged. DR. Grille kept rab-
bits awake between 90 and 100 hours
and took careful measurements of the
continuous discharge Of the brain bat
terry until ii finally reached zero and
the animal died
The discharge Is measured In thou
sandths Of volts and invariably begins
70 decline rapidly as the animal ap-
proaci1es death.
Results which may prove Of vast irn-
portance 10 medicine explaining why
patients sometimes die on the operating
table under anesshesia, were obtained
by aneEtnesing rabbits with ether and
uret1ia and measuring the battery po~
fential II vas found 10 decline TO q
very low point and sometimes the bat
terv ran out altogether. resulting In
death
Ability Affected by Blood.
Differences In personality and ability
of human beings may be due 10 differ
ences IN the blood supply 10 the brain.
Or Ales Hrdlicka of the National
Museum told the academy after Dr
Henry Il Donaldson Of the Wistar
Institute of Philadelphia had said that
very slight physical differences could
be detected In the autopsies Of different
types Of brains.
Dr. Hrdiicka said that In a recen,
experiment the brains Of three dead
NINA Russian mathematician. a
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