Evening star., 1940-05-04
Of Sturs, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study

In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
Experiments with a powerful new
chemical medicine which already appar-
emily has proved a cure for the chronic
stages of serious human disease for
which no adequate treatment has been
known now are under way at the United
States Public Health Service and Johns
Hopkins University.
The chemical is sodium sulfanilyl sui
fanilate, known for the past half CEN
tury as the base for certain textile dyes.
1t adds fourth to the group of related
substances which have brought about
in the past four years one of the greatest
revolutions in history of medicine. Sui
fanilamide, first to be introduced, is q
powerful agent against large group Of
bacteria responsible for some of the most
dreaded human diseases. Sulfapyridine
attacks the pneumonia germ and sui
fathiazol, the latest to be announced,
another large group of bacteria.
None of these, however, have proved
unquestionably to have much effect on
the most deadly of all enemies OF man.
kind, the extraordinarily minute filter
able viruses.
The malady for which a cure has
been reported by Drs. Arthur Hebb and
S. G. Sullivan Of Baltimore and DR..
Lloyd D. FELTON, of the Public Health
Service staff Is lymphopathia venereum,
one OF the venereal diseases. Like syph-
Ills, 1t has three stages with intervening
periods when the patient Is apparently
well. Until recently however. it has
nearly always recurred in worse form
than before and the third stage has been
almost hopeless.
Unlike the more common venereal dis
eases which are due to microscopically
visible organisms, this malady is caused
by one Of the elusive viruses, as are in
f1uenza, poliomyelitis and encephalitis
Attention was called to the dye base,
which had not been considered before
as medicine, by reports which later
turned out to be premature of its sue
cessful use against distemper in dogs
This disease is due to virus, supposedly
related to the influenza virus in humans.
No two diseases could be farther apart
than lymphopathia venereum and the
dog malady, except that both belonged
III the virus class, and sodium sulfanilyl
seemed to have specific action against
virus. The results were impressive
from the start. Up to date, they report,
IA cases of the tertiary stage of lympho-
pathia venereum have been cured or
greatly improved with the disappearance
of all symptoms. In some of the cases
surgery, the only known treatment Of
any value in the past, had failed.
This particular disease is not very
common and the value Of the new rem
edy is lessened by the fact that recent
experiments show vast improvement
when 1t Is treated with other chemicals
in its primary and secondary stages.
There is no reason to allow it to reach
the point where sodium sulfanilyl is
necessary,
The significance of the treatment is in
its implications in other fields. Lympho-
pathia is characterized by progressive
chronic ulcers. These are cleared up in
a few days to a few weeks, depending
on their severity. Other ulcer condi-
tons are suspected to have virus back
ground Thus whole new field may be
opened to chemotherapy.
Compared with either sulfanilamide
or sulfapyridine, the new medicine has
very low toxicity and can be prepared
and taken by mouth in liquid FORM
A total of l80 Indian tribes still exist
In the United States.
Such is the conclusion of Dr. Herbert
w. Krieger. Smithsonian Institution Gu
rator of ethnology in answer to q con-
gressioral inquiry.
All hinges, DR.. Krieger says, on the
definition one wishes to give to the
word tribe"
Among the North American Indians"
he says, "a tribe is a socially. politically
and religiously organized body of per-
sons bound together by ties Of kinship,
dwelling together, occupying definite
territorial area and speaking common
dialect"
Following this strict definition, he
says, the total would be considerably
reduced. Some of the historical tribes
have only few individuals left alive
and others have so merged with nearly
related bands that they have lost their
identity
This is particularly true, he points out,
Of the Indians of Oklahoma, who now
are more or less tribally disrupted. Max
ing a special check on this area he found
there were remnants Of IS historic tribes
still extant there. They are the Greek,
Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Semin-
ole, Seneca, Quapaw, Modoc, Ottawa,
Eastern Shawnee. Peoria, Miami, Wyan-
dotte Usage, Pawnee, Ponca, Kiowa,
Cheyenne, Apapaho, Iowa, Potawatomi,
Kickapoo, San and Fox, Comanche,
Cadoo Kiowa-Apache; Fort Hill Apache.