Evening star., 1939-12-30
Snake e'sEye Reveals
Underground Origin,
Scientists Hear
Optics Said to Beer No
Relation to Those
billiards
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Stan Correspondent.

Star Stan Correspondent.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 30.-The
snakes cold, hypnotic eye reveals
the origin of the serpent race IN the
darkness under the earth.
This curious chapter in evolution
was told biologists of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science today by DR.. Gordon l..
Walls of Wayne University College
Of Medicine.
For the past year DR.. Walls has
been dissecting the eyes of snakes
and lizards. The serpents undoubt-
edly arose from a lizard ancestry,
and most parts of their anatomy
can be traced directly to the older
reptiles.
But when it comes to the eyes, DR..
Walls said, all relationship breaks
down, especially since the snakelike
lizards have exactly the same sort of
eyes as any other lizards.
Analysis of the bundle of substi-
tutes that is the snake eye" said DR..
Walls, shows that the snakes must
once have spent long period under
ground, during which they lost their
legs, ears, some of the bones of the
skull and almost lost their eyes.
The eyes degenerated almost as
completely as have those of the
blind fishes which live in lightless
caves.
Later the snakes emerged above
ground and fought their way back
to respectability They had to in
vent one substitute after another
within the eye to take the place of
the lost lizard-eye features. This
sheds light for the first time on the
habits and history of the first
serpents."
Space Thermometer.
A new space thermometer, by
means of which it is possible to
measure the temperature of clouds
of gas thousands of light years dis
tant in the skies was described to the
astronomers by Donald H. Menzel
and Lawrence H. Aller of Harvard
University.
The spectacular Dutch elm disease,
which in six years has cost Federal
and State governments nearly S20,-
100000 and covered more than 5000
square miles of the Atlantic Coast
States, is spread by 75-mile winds
in the high atmosphere, according
to experiments reported by DR.. E. P.
Felt of the Bartlett Tree Research
Laboratories of Stamford, Conn.
DR.. Felt's tests hold out little hope
of keeping the epidemic, which
threatens destruction to the lovely
elm-lined streets of Eastern towns,
under control except by rigid local
efforts. 1t is caused by the fungus
spread by BEETLE introduced from
Europe. This beetle normally flys
only few miles. so the spread OF
the disease normally would be quite
slow.
Continues to Spread.
The disease has continued, how
ever, to break out in unexpected
places, hundreds of miles from its
original focus. and has spread from
New Jersey into New England and
New York, where it may prove
most destructive. DR.. Felt released
10000 small rubber balloons tagged
with requests that finders report to
him the exact location where they
dropped to earth. Normally they
would be expected to travel short
distance. A few, however, were re-
ported coming to earth several hun
dred miles away.
The same thing may happen to a
fungus-carrying beetle. he said.
At the same time Dr. Frank L.
Howard of the Rhode Island Agri-
cultural Experiment Station an
nounced the appearance in South
ern New England of new bleed
ing disease" of naples which seri-
ously threatens the trees whose vivid
colors are the glory of Northern
autumn.
Noxious weeds are on the march
In all directions, but chiefly west
ward. DR.. Frank C. Gates of Kan
sas State College told biologists of
the American Association.
He has found, he said, l5O species
which are spreading west across
the plains States, compared with
only 80 which are on an eastward
migration. About IA species are
moving northward and II south
ward
Billion Meteors a Year.
At least billion meteors enter the
outer atmosphere of the earth every
"a hours, astronomers were told by
DR.. c. c. Wiley of the University Of
Iowa.
Possibility of a DETECTION in course
OF the main stream of the Leonids,
the spectacular showers of shooting
stars each November, was seen by
DR.. Walter P. Whitney of Pomona
College, California, because Of the
,1peynected hri1liarce this wear