Evening star., 1932-01-02
VIRGINIA SCIENTIST
WINS $1,000 PRIZE
Or. c. C. SpiedeI's Findings
on Growth of Nerves
Recognized.
By the Associated Press.

By ths Associated Press.
NEW ORLEANS, January 2.-The
annual 1000 prize for an outstanding
discovery was awarded last night by
the American Association for the Al
vsncement of Science to Dr. Carl Cas-
key Spiedel of the University Of Viz
ginis.
He is the first scientist to make a
nerve grow so that ali its secrets are
visible from its birth" to maturity.
LDr. Speidel, formerly a resident OF
Washington was graduated from Gen.
tral High School in 1910 and was a
member of the base ball and track
teams there. The school annual" the
year he finished referred to him as
young in years, but sage In mental
capacity"
He is q son Of George speidel of
Bradley Hills, Va. His wife, the former
Margaret NJ. Knowles, is a daughter Of
DR.. and Mrs. Henry Knowles Of Falls
Church. Va.
Speidel is q graduate Of La Fayette
and Princeton Colleges.l
DR.. Speidel cleared up the doubt
about how a nerve grows Some scien-
lists had held that it developed like a
chain" others that II grew from a
single tiny cell. But no one had been
able actually to see.
Proved to Be Cells.
Under DR.. Speidels dark field"
microscope, living nerves seen in the
transparent tail of q tsdpole proved
to be cells instead Of a chain.
This tiny cell" Is shaped like cone
and travels along, spinning a tenuous
thread behind it, like spider.
This cone-shaped thing knows just
where TO go. 1t moves without legs by
launching" itself along. When it comes
TO an obstruction in the tadpole's tail, it
heSitates, explores about, and finds a
good pathway to go around the obstacle.
The first cone" is a pioneer. After
it, come others, each following the first
laid track, and spinning their tiny
threads around the first nerve fiber.
They thus build up a full-sized nerve.
After the threads are spun together,
a second cell comes along, the myelin
sheath cells, which form the nerve COW
ering. These possess the power of mo-
ton. If any part of the new nerve is
hurt, they rush to that point to make
repairs. Some of them were kept away
from the nerve hbers for a whole month
and then released. Immediately they
found their way to nerve and went
back TO work.
Show Marks of Intelligence.
These nerve elements also show evi-
dences Of intelligence when new flesh
begins growing near them. They seem
to know there is a new area needing
nerves and speed up their progress in
that direction.
Or. Speidel's microscope ma dispose
Of q long-held theory that nerves are
guided by some electrical attraction.
Instead, low but definite form Of in
telligence may actuate them.
DR.. S. J. Holmes of the University
OF California told the association 1t is
now financially profits BILE for the whites
to encourage increase of the worlds
colored races, for these races help pro-
duce the white mans wealth and buy
his goods, he declared, but this policy
may result in an intensified struggle
for existence between the colored races
and the whites.
The tendency OF industrial develop
mept to cause dominant peoples to be
swamped out by the descendants of
more primitive stocks who are utilized
as laborers Is one which every wisely
governed people should consider with
great care" DR.. Holmes continued.
Just as bad money drives out good
money, so a low-standard population
tends TO drive out q high-standard
population"
Sees Danger 10 Capitalism.
Depression is profit disease" Prof.
Irving Fisher, economist Of Yale Uni
Yersity, said.
Il, myself, am not SO cocksure about
capitalism as was In my youth" he
continued. What I am fairly sure Of
is that if capitalism finds itself unable
to clean the dirt of depression out of its
very foundations, called profits, some
form of socialism will devour capital
ism"
Much distress selling" and resulting
increase Of Indebtedness might have
been headed of II defation had been
vigorously fought from its very symptom
by such agencies as the Federal Re-
serve System, Fisher declared The
system did act, he said, but it was timid
and acted too late, after distress def1a-
ton had become an avalanche and
Irresistible.
A form of special deafness to the
finer shades of musical tones was
blamed partly on modern noise by DR..
Wilma Braid White OF Chicago, direc-
tor Of the accoustical laboratory of the
American Steel & Wire Co.
The noises of modern life are partly
responsible" he said. Ears are becom-
ing coarsened to the finer shades Of
tone That is one reason why music
is tending toward the boiler-shop
variety, making use of diSsonances and
terrific crashes. II may account, in
part, for the popularity Of jazz music"