Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
BY RENE BACHE.

their eventual stature and physi-
cal development as adults be greatly increased?
Recent experiments by the Carnegie institu-
ton seem to indicate that the production OF
such giant babies might be practicable.
The experiments in question have been made
ON mouse babies, which are easy to get in I'M
limited numbers and in six weeks reach adult
age With so rapid growth process, obSerVa.
tions can be conducted to great advantage.
IN a general way, physiologically whatever
is true of q mouse baby is true Of human
baby.
1t a recent exhibition in Washington the
Carnegie Institution showed q series Of mouse
babies alive in illuminated glassed wall panels.
In the first panel box was tiny naked mouse
ling born that same morning. in the second
q mouse day old; in the third a mouse days
old, and so on up to IA days.
Alongside Of the last box another glass
fronted box containing a mouse twice the size
of the Oldest Of the aforementioned series.
Yet, as explained by a label card, 1t was OF
exactly the same age, II days.
Why? Because from birth onward 1t had
been supplied with unlimited milk, whereas
the other 14-day mouse got from its mother
only a normal supply.
In word, the giant mouse baby owed its
extraordinary size to the circumstance that 1t
had got all the food it was able to consume.
The unlimited milk was furnished by the
simple expedient of destroying Of litter
%
got all there was
AN inference drawn Is that If it were practi-
cable to furnish a human baby with I'M
limited food of exactly the kind intended for
it by nature, it might during its first year
grow twice as fast as the ordinary baby, and
at the age of IL months be twice as big.
For the human baby the supply of natural
food has obvious limitation Bottle milk
is not the natural food of the human infant.
The patented baby foods are mere substitutes.
Consider, however the case of rich man
who might want his baby to be giant. Ex-
pense being of no importance, he might through
the hospitals obtain for his child the services
of half dozen or more healthy young women
who had lost their own babies whereby he
would obtain for his child an unlimited supply
of natural food.
May it not be assumed that the child at
the age of IL months would be very much
bigger and heavier than any year-old baby
normally fed? The experiments with mouse
babies certainly point to that inference.
Other experiments have proved that If the
growth of an animal during early stages Of
its development can be accelerated, its size
at maturity will be greater. Thus it might
reasonably be expected that the giant baby
would, as an adult, attain a superior stature.
The average baby IA days old is 10 inches
long. BY the end of its first year Of life it
IS u mcneS long II IL went on growing at
this rate the child at years Of age would
be as tall as an average man. BY the end Of
his NTH year he would attain q stature Of 1Oh
feet, and his tenth birthday would find him
o vertable Colossus SO feet high
During the first % weeks of life the average
baby doubles its weight. If it continued to
grow at this rate, long before its fourth birth
day the child would weigh tons.
Obviously there is limit on the size desirable
for babies.
For every kind of animal, however, nature
sets a limit of maximum size. 1t is not pos
sible to imagine q mouse grown to the size OF
an elephant The extraordinary stature Of
circus giants is attributable to q disease. A
sufferer from "giantiSm" exhibits an enormous
Overdevelopment of the bones Of the face and
hands, and he never lives to be old. Nobody
has ever seen an elderly giant
The big babies. ct birth, are usually boys.
When new born, the average boy baby weighs
nearly three-quarters Of q pound more than
the average girl baby.