Evening star., 1939-02-28
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms 49,
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

BY Thomas r. Henry.
A curious tendency of cases of infan-
tile paralysis in the District of Colum-
bia to occur in pairs is reported by DR..
c. G. Dauer, epidemologist of the District
Of Columbia Health Department, in \
report to the United States Public Health
Service based on study Of the time
and-place incidence of the disease here
This indicates, he believes, either some
element of direct contagion-a much
disputed pointer some common source
Of infection. The frequency of close
proximity of cases in various areas Of
the city, DR.. Dauer holds, hardly could
have been due to chance alone.
There were two instances of two cases
in the same family, two cases in an
institution for children, two cases in
different families living in the same
dwelling, three reported from adjoining
houses, and several instances from the
same neighborhood. The interval be-
tween the onset Of the first and second
case varied from to IL days.
The incidence of the disease, DR..
Dauer found, has usually been higher in
the District among white than colored.
although in 1885 the rate was more
than twice as high among the latter.
The disease was prevalent to about the
same extent among persons living in
poor and good economic circumstances
and in good and bad sanitary surround
ings. Between 80 and 95 per cent Of
the 231 cases recorded in the 13-year
period had some degree of paralysis.
On the whole, he found, the District
has escaped lightly. There have been
no epidemics of unusual severity, COM
pared with most other cities. The high
est rate was in 1885 when the rate was
a little more than II per 100000.
Armored dragons-giant lizards whose
bodies were completely covered with bony
plates which overlapped in even rows
like shingles or tiles on roof-craWled
over parts of North America about 35,-
100000 years ago and perhaps scared
the earliest pigmy horses and camels.
The most complete fossil specimen
of one of these creatures yet found
consisting of the head, neck and fore
part of the body, has just been de-
scribed from the collections of the United
States National Museum by DR.. Charles
w. Gilmore, Smithsonian Institution
paleontologist. Hitherto the animal has
been known only from a few broken
specimens which gave psychologists a
quite fragmentary picture OF what 1t
really looked like.
1t was the giant glyptosaurus, men,
ber of a family of lizards which -four
ished and vanished in the oligocene
geological period. Its remains have been
found in Utah. Wyoming, Colorado
Montana and parts of Canada. Except
for one questionable specimen in France
it has never beer reported outside OF
North America, where it was associated
with early crocodiles and snakes.
AS the fossil now can be reconstructed
DR.. Gilmore says, it would appear that
the creature in life was about feet
long. Perhaps the living animal coming
closest to it is the gila monster OF the
Southwest, to whose remote ancestors
it may have been very distantly related
1t was probably vegetarian, non
poisonous and sluggish, which depended
for survival on it's fearsome appearance
and its unique type of bony armor.
No other animal, living or extinct
had anything approaching this sort OF
protection. The tiles are not part ol
the bony structure of the body, but are
embedded in the flesh. They are laid
in geometrically straight rows and each
row overlaps the other about an eighth
Of an inch These titles" are scales
turned to bone, a reverse development
from their Transformation into feathers
in some other reptile family from which
the birds arose.
But, Dr. Gilmore says, no reptile has
such regularly arranged scales nor bird
such regularly arranged feathers.
At best the animal must have beer
quite rare Only about dozen Speci-
mems ever have been found.
X
The most complete collection yet made
of birds of the West Indies, excluding
Cuba, has just come to the Smithsonian
Institution through bequest in the viii
of DR.. Stuart T. Danforth, formerly 6
teacher at the Puerto Rico College Of
Agriculture.
1t consists of more than 5000 speci'
mems DR.. Danforth spent approx
mately 13 years in gathering this col.
lection, which contains not only all tht
common forms of the islands, but some
of which there are only few specimens
in existence.
The bird life Of the West Indies i
peculiar from the number of endemic
species, birds which are restricted to {
single island. Notable among these /!
the famous Santa Lucia black thrush
coal black little songster of the thrusr
family, which has been twice reported
as an original discovery. It is confined
entirely to one end of the British islane
of Santa Lucia. It is one of the rares
birds in existence and several specimen
are included in the Danforth collection