New Britain herald., 1930-12-31
Science Group Told of De- velopment of Plasmochin Comets With New Col orless Gas in Tails De- scribed - Magnets Used On Plants.

Cleveland, Dec. 31.7Pl-Canary birds affected with bird malaria have helped make possible the develop ment of plasmochin, a drug that cures malaria in humans, it was re- vealed today.
 Plasmochin was recently develop- ed in Germany as a direct result of experiments with canaries affected with malaria, said pr. Reginald D. Maxwell of Syracuse university, speaking before the parastological section of the American association for the advancement of science.
 Synthetic Product
 The new remedy is a synthetic pro- duct and to chemists it is familarly known as IN N-diethylamino-i iso- pen tyl S-amino- -6-methoxy- xy-quinoline."
 'One of the great advantages of plasmochin over quinine is the abili- ty of the former to destroy the crescents of plasmodium," said Dr. Maxwell. These are the crescent shaped germ cells of malaria, Discovery of plasmochin's ability to destroy these cells is one of the most interesting results of the entire study, Dr. Maxwell indicated, be- cause the number of diseases in which such result can be regular ly obtained is exceedingly small.
 Plasmochin has brought about the first known case of complete re- covery from plasmodium elongatum, the type of bird malaria against which quinine is the least effective. The longer a patient is treated with plasm ochin. the less severe any sub sequent relapse is likely to be, Dr. Maxwell said.
 Blunders of Students How blunders made by students have thrown new light on education- al work was explained by Benjamin C. Gutenberg of the Viking Press. New York. He held that what teach- CTS take to be the students failure to understand often is really the teachers failure to make clear.
 Similarity in words, he said. is one cause of such misunderstanding. as illustrated by a pupil who said:
 "Acrimony, sometimes called holy, is another name for marriage"
 misunderstanding of the teach CTS definition of the word peculiar led to this one:
 Teacher-"What three animals arc peculiar to the frigid zone?" r Student-"The lion, the elephant and the giraffe would be peculiar to the frigid zone"
 To false inferences by the student Mir Gruenberg attributed this one:
 "A grass widow is the wife of a dead vegetarian"
 If the earth should bump comets tail the air might take on a faint aroma of almonds, it was de- clared before the astronomical sec ton.
 Tails On II Comets
 The presence in the tails of fl comets of cyanogen d colorless gas known on earth and having an al mond-like odor was reported by Prof. N. Bobrovnikoff of Ohio Wes- leyan university.
 He found evidence for this sub stance in that portion of the light of comet tails called rafferty bands These bands he said might be pro- duced partly by cyanogen and part ly by d combination of hydrogen and carbon. Regardless of their nature the emanations composing d comets tail are believed to be too tenuous to do harm if they strike the earth.
 Changing the species of plants with a big magnet has been tried with results that give hope of suc- cess at the United States department of agriculture, the scientists were in- formed.
 The magnet is made by the cleo tric current from d 20 horsepower gasoline generator, it's coils connect ed to a. 10 or 220 volt source. Nari- ous plants were placed in the field of this big magnet, with the idea that the electro magnetic radiation might affect their chromosomes. the thread like substances in cells which govern plant species, shapes. colors and fruits.
 Frequency of MOsaics
 Dr. G. F. Sprague of the bureau of plant industry who made the ex- periments said that preliminary tests indicate an increase of frequency of mosaics. A plant mosaic is pro- duced when one or more character 1stics exchange places This is one of natures steps in changing species
 The number of mosaics increased the longer the plants were exposed to the magnet, Dr. Sprague found Certain changes in the all-important chromosomes also were observed