Evening star., 1937-04-27
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r HENRY

Where mile-high mountains now bury
their heads in clouds, sea water two miles
deep once covered parts of the area
covered by the Appalachian Mountain
ranges.
This was demonstrated to the National
Academy yesterday by Or. Rudolph
Ruedemann of the New York State
Museum. Scattered through the noun
tains are beds of the flintlike rock known
as ebert" These beds are made up
almost entirely of fossilized "radiolarian
ooze" Radiolarians are extremely mi
mute sea organisms with hard shells.
particularly abundant in such ocean
areas rs the Sargasso Sea. When they
die they sink to the bottom. their
shells become mixed with the ooze and
in later geological processes this is
transformed into solid rock.
Fortunately for biologists, the radio
larians are a very ancient family which
has persisted into the present almost
without change. DR.. Ruedemann found
that some of the Appalachian rocks were
made up OF the remains of species which
exist in great numbers today, but that
some Of them never are found above
the 12,Oc0-foot level.
which is very unlikely, the radiolarians
which formed with Appalachian ebert
hundreds OF millions of years ago lived
at q similar depth.
An hereditary factor in rickets was
demonstrated by Drs. George L. Streeter.
E. A. Park and Deborah Jackson of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
This disease is characterized by failure
of the bones to harden. It is especially
prevalent among children of the slums
and has been supposed to be due en-
tirely to lack of vitamin D in the
diet-or to lack of sunshine, which
amounts to about the same.
The Carnegie Institution doctors de-
prived young rats of all vitamin D for
periods of three weeks. With X-rays
they observed the effect on the bones.
Then they placed the animals on full
diet again and apparently they recovered
without any i'll effects.
They noted, however, that the tenn
porary effects on some animals were
much greater than on others. These
were segregated and bred. The same
experiment was performed with the
second generation, and so on for IA
generations At the end definitely
rachitic strain of animals was produced
The experiment, they said, explains why
children in some families acquire rickets
while others, in equally unfavorable cir
cumstances, do not.
The widely accepted medical opinion
that the dreaded nervous disease, in
fantile paralysis, never strikes twice was
challenged by experiments reported by
DR.. Simon FlexEer of the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research.
Monkeys used in laboratory expert
ments which had recovered from attacks
were reinoculated with the poliomyelitis
virus and developed the disease second
time. The same is doubtless true OF
children, DR.. Fexner pointed out.
There are two kinds of chemical mes
sengers in the body, it was reported by
DR.. G. H. Parker of Harvard University
The first are the well-known hormones
from the glands of internal secretion
such as adrenalin-which have very
powerful general effects on the nervous
system, and hence on behavior, when re-
leased in extremely minute quantities
They are distinguished by the fact that
they are soluble in water.
Much less understood, DR.. Parker said
are the "lipohumors," secreted by the
nerve endings themselves. They are
soluble in ether or oil and their effects
are specific and local. He himself has