Evening star., 1938-05-07
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Stan Correspondent Of The Etar.

treatment for lost hair, with details
of two cases. was reported before the
Virginia Academy of Sciences at its
annual meeting here today by DR..
James H. Smith of the Medical COL
lege of Virginia
The new treatment-applicable only
to quite limited number of cases
of incipient baldness-was based on
an analogy with pellagra, the body
and mind wrecking diet deficiency
disease which is widespread through
parts Of the South. In this malady.
it has been found. the amount Of
sulphur. in the hair falls to a low
level. Normally hair contains about
is per cent of sulphur. more than
any other part of the body. Loss of
hair often accompanies the disease.
Also throughout the pellagra belt
sheep give low yields OF wool.
Feeding the liver is one of the
standard procedures in treating pei.
lagra. 1t contains minute AMOUNTS
of a substance known as nicotine
acide. breakdown product OF the
nicotine found in tobacco and very
much less poisonous. Treatment with
pure nicotine acid has lately worked
miracles with pellagra victims, clear
ing up cases of pellagra insanity in
few days.
Pellagra now is supposed to be
generalized intoxication condition
One of the prime functions Of sulphur
dc ;,N &c
bat such intoxicants When an
excess AMOUNT is needed not enough
is left for the hair. The NICOTINE
acid in the liver presumably sets it
free for this purpose.
Coats Grown in Four Months.
Both Of the cases treated success
fully with the liver extract by DR..
Smith were women. He gave them
the same dosage of liver as is GUS
tomarily given in cases of pernicious
anemia. In neither case, he stressed.
did the victim of the falling hair
show any symptoms either of pellagra
or of pernicious anemia
One case was that of a girl in her
teens, the other of a woman in her
30s. Much of the original hair was
lost. Good coats of new hair were
grown in about four months OF liver
treatment
DR.. Smith stressed that no general
conclusions can be drawn from these
two isolated cases, and he believes,
in any event, that the sort of bald
ness which may be cured by liver
extract is quite rare. When a woman
loses her hair it is a decidedly alb
normal process. while more or less
hair loss is normal to male as age
advances. 1t is probable that the
treatment would work only in the
abnormal cases.
Most badness, it was stressed, is
due to other causes. Efforts to in
duce hair growth by sulphur treat
ment in the past have proved futile,
according to local physicians.
''Steel-coated seeds" that ordinarily
come up only four or five years after
planting, but which now can be made
to germinate in three days, were de-
scribed by DR.. Thomas W. Turner
of Hampton Institute. These are the
seeds of the Scotch broom, whose
brilliant yellow flowers cover hillsides
in Southern Scotland, which was
the emblem Of the Plantagenet kings
of England and which early Virginia
colonists patriotically brought with
them to the New World.
Seeds Shot Into Air.
The behavior of the seeds, which
are shot into the air by the plant
itself with popgun explosion of the
seed pods. hitherto has seemed with
out rhyme or reason. DR.. Turner
found that they are covered with
very hard, glossy coats almost i'm
permeable to water. A seed cannot
germinate until this coat is shed.
Under Virginia climatic conditions it
requires several years for the water
in the soil to soak the coat away,
whereas in the damp British Isles
this might happen in one or two
seasons. He simply scraped away
the steel shell. and the new plants
appeared almost at once. Six-year-
old seeds, he found, were still alive.
Insect friends and foes of Santa
Claus are waging bitter battle
through the Southeast. it was report
ed by G. w. Underhill of the Vir-
ginia Agricultural Experiment Station.
A recent European immigrant is
leaf-mining fly which feeds entirely
on the leaves Of holly. mining under
their surfaces and covering them with
unsightly blotches about the time they
are wanted for Christmas decorations.
This insect now has spread over
most Of the United States.
Unlike most insect pests, Mr.. Un-
derhill reported, it is active all winter.
The female punctures hole in a holly
leaf sometime in the late summer
and lays eggs in it. The larvae hatch
and begin boring at once. In the
warm interior Of the leaf they keep
feeding all winter. the first blotches
appearing about October and con-
tinually growing more unsiehtly. In
March the new flies emerge to repeat
the life cycle.
At the Virginia station four para