Evening star., 1938-03-30
YOUTH STARVATION.
MAY DOUBLE LIFE
Cornell Psychologists Tell
of Results of Work
With Rats.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
STAFF Correspondent of The Star.

BALTIMORE, March 3o.-Dou-
--Sing the length of life by keeping
pbuth in cold storage was reported to
the American Institute of Nutrition,
meeting here today, by Cornell Uni
versity Psychologists.
They got their results with rats.
1t might not work with men in spite
of the basic physiological similarity
of the two mammals. The average
life span of a white rat is spproxi-
mately 900 days, corresponding to so
years in man.
Drs. c. M. McCay, L. A. May and
Gladys Sporting divided 100 of the
animals into five groups just after
they were weaned To one third of
these they gave thoroughly adequate
rat diets with all the necessary vita
minis, salts, acids, minerals. fats, su-
gars and proteins These grew nor
mally, attained maturity " about
three months, and proceeded to live
normal lives Of adult white rats
To the others they gave the same
adequate diets with one important
exception. Everything in the diet
especially the fats and sugars, that
would produce heat was limited to
the amounts barely necessary to
maintain life. The caloric value of
the food was cut to an absolute mini
mum. 1t was like giving a furnace
barely enough coal to keep the fire
burning.
Kept on Low Calorie Diet.
Four groups were kept on this low
calorie diet 800, 500. 700 and 1000
days, respectively. The result was
that although they had every other
element necessary for growth these
rats grew very little beyond the wean-
ing stage. X-ray examinations OF
bones and arteries also showed that
they remained babies compared te
their adequately-fed litter mates.
They found, however, that at any
time they could start normal growth
and aging in the starvlings by giving
them enough calories Around a
mean Of 600 days, the adequately
fed rats began to drop off of old age
The last Of the group, a veritable
rat Methuselah, died at 964 days. A,
that time 10 per cent of the retarded
animals were still alive and in the
prime of life. This result would have
been much better except for accidents
which killed more than half of them
The 1,000-day starvlings. already
equivalent to men and women oi
100 are just beginning to grow up
They show none of the Affections
common to old age in both rats and
men. There is none of the deadly
calcif1cation Of the arteries which in
evitably kills all creatures in the end
Their results, the physiologists
point out. at least challenge the de-
STABILITY of rapid growth, brought
about by optimal diets, in children
The chubby baby and sturdy little
boy OF the food advertisements the
ideal of every mother and child doc
tor may be due to pay for apparent
Childhood health in years of life. The
Cornell psychologists emphasized
however. the desirability of diets ade-
quate in everything except calories.
Itching Disease Traced.
An itching disease Of babies may
be due to lack of minute quantities
OF two acids, linolic and arachidonic
which are contained in fats, it was
reported by Drs. w. r. Brown, A. C.
Hansen, G. o. Burr and I. McQuar-
RE of the University of Minnesota.
1t has been known for some time,
they said, that rats kept c1. a diet
entirely devoi1 of fat stop growing,
develop scaliness of the tails and feet,
and show certain pathological changes
in the kidneys. Analysis of the
blood serum of the animals shows
almost complete absence of these two
acids and minute quantities of them
will bring about cures.
When they tested the blood serum of
babies suffering from an infantile
form of eczema they found the same
condition and caused great improve
ment by minute doses of the two acids.
1t was too risky to use babies as guinea
pigs, so one of the psychologists used
himself, living for six months on a
diet entirely devoid of fats.
At the end of the time, he reported
he felt fine. but physiological tests
showed underlying conditions similar
to those seen in the rats and there
was the same lack of the two acids in
his blood serum. 1t was concluded
that these constitute two essential
foods which cannot be synthesized out
of other foods in the chemical labora-
tory of the body.
New Vitamin Described.
A newly-discovered, blood -clotting
vitan1in, which is contained in alfalfa,
pig liver fat, fish meal and soy bean
oil, was described by Drs. Hugh R.
Bit and Arnold E. Osterberg of the
Mayo Clinic. 1t is known as vitamin
K, Lack of this substance, it was
demonstrated about year ago, causes
hemorrhages in chickens. This is due,
1t was found to the absenc. of a sub
stance in the blood known as proth-
rombin, which is one of the essential
elements for clotting, and hence STOP
ping the bleeding of wound.
The same condition is found in two
human illnesses, jaundice and, to
an exaggerated degree, in haemophilia,
the hereditary bleeding disease which
afflicted the former Spanish and Rus
sian royal families.