Evening star., 1938-10-22
OF STARS,
MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science. Progress
in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
BIZ THOMAS r. HENRY.

A new virus disease Of the central
nervous system, analogous to the chorio-
meningitis discovered at the Public
Health Service laboratories here four
years ago, has just been reported from
the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
1t is, tests with animals indicate, mild
er than any of the others in this dreaded
regiment of death-meningitis, polio
myelitis, encephalitis and chorio-menin-
gitis-although its symptoms are very
alarming. It may be new organism In
the world which has not acquired It's full
virulence.
Up to date there has been only one
known human case. that Of 12-year-old
Paris girl from whom the virus was re-
covered. The child, according to the re-
port by Drs. j. Caminopetros and d. Com
menos, had what appeared to be pro-
nounced case Of the invariably fatal tu-
berculous meningitis. 1t was learned,
however, that she had recently been vac
cinated, bringing up the possibility that
the malady might be the type OF en-
cephalitis which Is known sometimes to
follow smallpox vaccination. The symp-
toms were not characteristic for enceph-
alitis, however, and after about two weeks
the child began to get better.
The new virus, presumably the one re-
sponsible for the malady, was recovered
from the little girls spinal fluid at the
height OF her fever. Tests showed that
1t was quite different from the virus OF
chorio- meningitis or "Armstrong's dis
ease" as it Is called after the Washington
doctor who discovered 1t. To the latter.
for example, rabbits are immune. These
animals showed the most decided reac-
tions with the new virus while animals
sensitive to the chorio-meningitis virus
apparently were immune. Rats and
monkeys, also could be infected with this
newly found untromicroscopic organism.
With rabbits the chief effect reported
Is high fever. which continues from two
to three weeks. Sometimes the malady
is fatal to the animals, out many of them
recover, apparently without permanent
bad effects. A rabbit that has had the
disease once cannot be reinfected.
The experimental animals have been
killed at all stages of the malady and
efforts made to find any LESSONS, especially
in the meninges. or Innings OF the spinal
cord and brain. To date none have been
found in itself very strange character
of the disease and feature which differ
entiates it from chorio-meningitis.
~ ~
Possibility Of life forms being carried
over vast stretches Of ocean to inhabit
new lands alone can account for the
teeming land shell and other mollusk
fauna of Hawaii.
Such is the conclusion Of DR.. Paul
Bartsch, curator Of mollusks OF the
Smithsonian Institution, who has just
brought to a conclusion an exhaustive
monograph on Hawaiian mollusks pub
lished by the Bishop Museum OF Homo
lulu. The work represents the combined
studies Of the late DR.. William H. Dali,
DR.. Bartsch and DR.. H. A. Render of the
United States National Museum stan.
The Hawaiian Islands, DR.. Bartsch
points out, are the most isolated group
of volcanic islands in the world, sur
rounded by ocean from 10000 to $4,000
feet deep. The type of mollusks found
there, he stresses, could not have lived at
the great depths and hence must have
come from somewhere else, and there is
no other land mass within hundreds of
miles,
THE fauna can be accounted for" he
says, "in only two ways. Swimming of
larval forms in species that have free
swimming early stage is one, but the time
required to accomplish such a journey,
even if the young mollusk set out in a
predetermined way to do so, would be far
too great for the time allotted for this
part of the shellfishs life history.
"The other hypothesis Is the drift
method. To those who. like myself, have
seen the effect of typhoons, this does not
seem hairbrained Trees are not only
blown down, but uprooted by the waves
and carried to sea, where rocks enmesbed
in their roots, serving as ballast, keep
them not infrequently afloat, partly sub
merged in an upright position. To such
roots. rocks and crannies mollusks may
attach themselves and be carried by cur
rents, winds and waves until their sup
port disintegrates. Once in a long while,
perhaps, such freighted vessel has been
stranded on the Hawaiian shores where,
finding suitable habitat, the species
have colonized the new territory"
Analysis of the mollusk life OF the
island, DR.. Bartsch says, shows that it is
composed only of forms that might use
this type of transportation.
Mollusk fossils found in we'll borinps
and in elevated cliffs, DR.. Bartsch SAYS,
show considerable shifts in the sea level
of the islands in the past. None of these
forms, geologically speaking, are very old
indicating that the sinkings and upheav-
ais were relatively recent.