Evening star., 1931-12-28
SAVANTS, FIGHTING
DISEASE, TO MEET
BacterioIogists Will Bare
Latest Findings at
Baltimore.
BY the Associated Press.

BY Ine Associated 1Ie6S.
BALTIMORE. December 28.-Men and
women of science who spend long hours
in the laboratory seeking to curb dis
ease by controlling microbes, turned tc
Baltimore today for the convening OF
the thirty third annual meeting of the
Society of American Bacteriologists, the
second largest scientific organization in
North America.
Discoveries to Be Barred.
They came to hear and tell of the
latest discoveries in the battle against
typhus, infantile paralysis and menin-
gifts and of bacteriology's latest con-
tributionS to the solution of agricultural
and industrial problems
Three days of scientific discussions
open to the public, were on the pro-
gram, with papers by many eminent
scholars, including DR.. F. DHerelle OF
the School of Medicine, Yale Univer-
sity, and G. E. A. Winslow, M. D., OF
the department of public health, Yale
University.
Two Johns Hopkins research workers
Miss Justina M. Hill and Dr. Edwin C.
White, were scheduled to tell of their
efforts to find out why the skin of some
persons kill certain germs and why the
DR. j. Howard Brown of the Johns
Hopkins University School of Hygiene
end Public HEALTH is president of the
society.
Pests Make Germs Harmful.
Disease germs have "plages," tiny
organisms whose bites" sometimes turn
the bacteria into raging deStroyers and
sometimes drug them into harmlessness
Discovery of certain profound effects
of these bacterial phageS waA reported
to the Society of American bacleriolo-
gists today by DR.. F. C'HerelIe of the
School of Medicine of Yale University.
The bacterial pests do not merely
drive disease germs berserk but some
how alter heredity, so that a different
species of bacteria developes. The new
species may be either more dangerous
or less so than were its parents.
D'Herelles discovery suggests the
possibility Of controlling bacteria by
breeding, provided it can be ascertained
what kind of phages will rob disease
germs of their virulence.
First Found in 1918.
DHerelle discovered the existence of
phages in 1918. They are invisible to
the most powerful microscope. DHerelle
believes they are living things. Some
scientists doubt this and hold that they
are some sort of chemical having a
powerful affinity for bacteria Ere
quently the phages which prey on one
type Of bacteria are harmless to other
types.
D'Herelle's phages already have been
used with good results in checking
isolated cholera outbreaks in India The
cholera phage does something to render
the plague less deadly.
D'Herelle told the bacteriologists today
that disease bacteria do not change
their species or their virulence unless a
"phage" becomes associated with them
He described raising bacteria in pure
form; that is, without any phage. He
grew them on 500 different kinds of
bacterial food, or media. Not the
slightest change occurred in these bac-
terra in a single case.
Then the phage was given to them
and DHerelle says:
Rate of Growth Measured.
From the moment of the contami-
naticn, mutations occur in every direc-
ton and each of the characters varies
by itself as a separate entity with a re-
suit that the number of possible muta-
tions, all from a single primitive bac-
terium, is indefinite.
The bacterial transformations are true
similar to those which have
been described by botanists as occurring
in plants under action of parasitism 4"
The rate of growth of a single bac-
terium has been measured by DR.. Stan
hope Bayne-Jones and DR.. Edward F.
Adolph of the University of Rochester
School of Medicine. A single germ is
placed on the point of a cone of germ
food, and its motion picture taken at
the rate of 20 to 80 views per minute
for several hours. Some bacteria after
growing to full size, later actually begin
to grow smaller, although they do not
60 clear back to babyhood size again.