Evening star., 1937-06-10
MEDAL PRESENTED.
FOR CANCER CLUE.
Researcher Who Traced
Malignant Growth to
Wheat Is Honored.
BY T. r. HENRY.
9taf Correspondent OF The Star,

ATLANTIC CITY, June 1O.-For
the discovery that there almost GER
tainly exists in wheat a mysterious
and extremely potent substance
| which causes a particularly virulent
type OF cancer in rats, the gold medal
for original research OF the American n
Chemical Society was awarded yester-
day to DR.. Leonard G. Rowntree OF
the Philadelphia General Hospital.
For the first time, vegetable sub
stance-and one possibly in common
use-has been shown to produce ma
lignant and rapidly fatal growths.
In some cases reported by Or. Rown-
tree the cancers grew nearly as large
as the rats themselves.
The Philadelphia doctors were
seeking the potent growth principle
which exists in the thymus gland,
and which has enabled them in the
past to telescope the entire growth
OF rats in a few days. They tested
one substance after another until
they came to vitamin E, the common
| source Of which is wheat germ oil.
| From a pharmaceutical house they
| obtained a crude extract Of this oil,
| which is obtained by ether extraction
from the whole wheat grain.
Produce Human Type.
The strange cancerous groWths ap-
| peared in short time They started
| in the intestinal tracts of the rats
and rapidly metastasized over the
whole body. They were Of the spin
; die sarcoma type frequently encoun-
/ tered in human beings.
They then gave rats doses of pure
wheat germ oil, such as commonly is
prescribed by physicians and sold in
drug stores 1t is used as a pre-
| Ventve for sterility and also as a
| general body tonic The pure SUBJ
! stance in no case produced cancer
This leaves the cancerf forming SUBJ
stance somewhere in the residue
soap-llke and chemically very com
plex material-which lies between the
refined and the unrefined product.
1t is considered extremely likely
! that 1t exists in the original wheat.
! The only other possibility, and that
| very slim one. is that the material
| is in the ether used as an extracting
| material. 1t also probably exists in
| the grain of other cereals. The can
GERS were caused by very large doses,
| containing much more Of the sub
fhan anuhnlu ~
get into the system by eating wheat
! The doctors expressed doubts as to
whether there is a cumulative effect.
Silver Medal Awarded
The silver medal OF the Medical As
sociation was awarded to DR.. Eben
j. Carey of Milwaukee for an exhibit
Of experiments demonstrating that
nerve and muscle action is in the
! nature Of wave action through liquid
! in closed container. These waves,
he showed. travel at the rate of sev-
eral million a second and might
actually be audible like sound waves
il they moved at much slower rate.
| The cross stripes and StriAtion
shown when a nerve or muscle is cross
| compared to the waves OF pond
suddenly frozen. He showed that their
patterns vary according to the nature
OF the stimulus.
resolution promising closer CO.
operation between the American Medi-
cal Association and the Federal Gov
ernment was adopted at an executive
meeting yesterday at which the as
/ sociation reiterated its stand for the
consolidation Of all Government health
activities into a single department OF
health.
Reaffirms Cooperation.
The American Medical Associa
ton said the resolution, lis cog
infant of the medical needs of the
people of the United States. 1t is
genuinely interested in all plans for
providing and distributing medica
care. The records, reports, source ma.
terial and experience of the aSsocia-
ton are of great value. They are a,
the service of agencies contemplating
the development and operation OF
plans for medical care.
The American Medical Association
reafirms its willingness, on receipt
Of direct request, to cooperate with
any governmental or other qualified
agency, and to make available the in
formation, observations and results of
investigation. together with any IA
cilities OF the association.
TelIs NJ Heart TeStx
A test to determine the reserve
power of the heart was described by
DR.. Gustav Nylin Of Stockholm
Sweden. There are many cases, he
said, in which the heart shows nc
signs Of insufficiency as long as it Is
at rest, but in which the symptoms
may appear during exertion. DR.
Nylin has special stairway on which
| patients walk cerain number OF
rounds at measured rate He meas
ures their consumption of oxygen be-
fore they start and after they have
done a certain amount of work. Nor
mai persons used 80, IS and 112 pei
cent more oxygen for the three grades
of exertion. Those who used higher
| pei CcLIdeeS we're pIOVeu W IldFc ul-
sufficient heart reserve power.
Silicosis, caused by dust in the
lungs. is the greatest single occupa-
tional hazard in the United States
Dr. Philip B. Matz Of the United
States Veterans Bureau at Washing.
ton asserted in reporting a statistlca
study Of the disease in veterans. The
seriousness, he said, lies in the fact
that it is conducive to tuberculosis
In l67 war veterans who had silicosi!
l6 per cent also had tuberculosis ane
Is per centa distinct condition desig.
mated as silicotuberculosis.
Evidence that deep, narrow chest
predisposes to tuberculosis was offered
by DR.. S. A. Weisman of Minneapolis
on the basis Of chest measurements
Of 5000 school children who had had
tuberculin tests. Those who reacted
positively had on the whole deeper
type of chest than those who did not