Evening star., 1937-12-28
BACTERIA YIELD
NEW HEALTH CLUE
Study of viruIence in Epi-
denies May Change
Counter-AttaCk.

Discovery Of a hitherto unknown
aspect Of the behavior Of bacteria,
mans worst enemies. was announced
before the Society Of American Bac-
teriologists. meeting here today in
the Mayflower Hotel, by DR.. Laszlo
Detre of the Public Health Service.
One OF the worlds foremost bac-
teriologists, formerly of the Pasteur
Institute and co-discoverer of the
universally used Wasserman test. DR..
Detre is now at work in the National
Institute Of Health Laboratory seeking
to explain some of the elusive details
Of the behavior of micro-o organisms
which have eluded science.
One Of these phases. he explained,
Is the curve Of virulence Of epidemics.
These usually start in relatively mild
form. and become more and more
deadly as they progress up to a GER
tain point, after which the virulence
declines. This is known to be due,
DR.. Detre said, to the fact that a
germ becomes more virulent in the
system Of its victim so that the person
to whom 1t is passed along gets the
disease In worse form.
Tissue Is Factor.
In his experiments here, however,
he found that this increase in viru-
1ence depends on the particular It's
sues in which the bacteria are
nourished. He worked with two
organisms. one responsible for typhus
fever and one for a peculiar kind
OF food poisoning. Those which pass
through the blood or lungs of a
victim, he found, become much more
dangerous for the next person they
attack than those which pass through
other organs. The lungs seem to
act as an incubator of virulence.
At present, DR.. Detre pointed out,
the discovery explains certain epi-
demic phenomena and may have a
direct medical application later on.
From the same experimental work he
found that the soluble components
Of different bacteria undergo various
changes when taken up by the liquids
OF different tissues. These changes
amount in some cases to decomposi-
tion. or splitting up Of the original
protein molecules. This finding, he
said. explains series Of hitherto in
explicable diaenostic procedures.
Decks are cleared for the great
battle Of medicine against leprosy,
one OF mankind's oldest and most
dreaded scourges. DR.. Earl B. Nc
Kinley. dean of George Washington
University School of Medicine, re-
ported to the society.
Extensive Tests Made.
DR.. Mckinley spent most of the
year in the Orient. where leproey is
most prevalent. and made more than
5000 tests in an effort to find spe-
ciflc antigen for the disease. It was
hoped to find among the chemical
extracts from the 20 or more supposed
leprosy germs which have been culti-
vated in the laboratory something
which would reveal the malady in its
earliest stages as surely as the WELL
known tuberculin test detects the
presence of tuberculosis. The two
diseases are very closely related
The tests, he reported, we're COM
plete failures. This makes it possible
Tor medical science the world over to
concentrate on single organism first
Isolated by DR.. Mckinley himself
and DR.. NJ. H. Soule of the University
OF Michigan in 1882. This was not
used in the tests because the rate Of
propagation is very slow and not
enough was available to make the
chemical extrasts. There is a high
probability that this is the actual
germ. Hitherto medical laboratories
have been working at cross purposes.
Bacteria Death Aided.
A new bacteria killing phenomenon
was reported by Drs. Harold r. Curran
and Fred r. Evans of the Bureau of
Dairy Industry. It is we'll known that
the death Of micro-organism comes
with the coagulation Of the cell proto-
plasm. This can be brought about
by heat, as is evidenced by the frying
Of an egg.
Recent experiments have shown that
pure proteins coagulate at a lower
temperature after they have been
irradiated with ultra violet light of
very short wave lengths. The two
Department of Agriculture bacteri-
ologists combined these two proce-
dures. They found that ultra violet
radiation Of bacterial spores followed
by heating to SO degrees centigrade
killed more than did the heat alone.
Moreover, it was the tough spores,
quite resistant to heat,
which were killed.
Killing micro-organisms with super
sound waves was reported by Drs. Paul
J. Beard and w. F. Gantvoort Of
Leland Stanford University. Even
rats kept in the path of these waves
Tor four minutes were killed. When q
culture OF bacteria was exposed to
them for IS minutes the number Of
organisms was reduced