Evening star., 1940-02-20
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field. Laboratory
And Study

In Field. Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
A hitherto unknown inherited dis
aglycophagia, or congenital in
capacity to eat anything sweet-has
just been reported by a Russian doctor
to the American Genetics Association
here.
One family of seven, otherwise entirely
normal, is afflicted with the strange
malady Neither the parents nor the
children Of the victims show any trace
Of the condition, although 1t seems to
run in families in a complex way.
In all cases the anomaly appears In
early childhood. The victims are re-
stricted chiefly to diet of sour milk,
rye bread and pickles, but otherwise
lead normal lives.
Prof. S. N. Davidenkov of Leningrad,
who found the anomaly, thus describes
typical case:
HE is 26 years old. He cannot re-
member ever having been able to eat
any food that tasted sweet. His mother
remembers that as very small child
he used to cry when he was made to
taste sweet bun. He cannot eat sugar,
honey, jam, candies, chocolate, ice
cream, fruits or berries, with the excep-
tion OF cranberries. He cannot take any
alcoholic drinks, or even mineral water.
He can eat potatoes unless they have
been frozen. This gives them slightly
sweet taste, so that he can no longer
endure them. His ideal of tasty food
is slice of rye bread with a cucumber
picked in brine.
AT the same time he definitely
states that he does not object to the
taste of anything sweet He can even
take lump of sugar in his mouth and
suck 1t for a moment He invariably
spits 1t out, however, and rinses his
mouth. He can never make himself
swallow anything sweet as it is as bad
as taking the most repulsive kind of
medicine Several times, when there
was nothing else to be had, he has
forced himself to eat sweet food. In
variably this resulted in nausea and a
most unpleasant physical weakness. He
also had the feeling that there was
something abnormal in the whole of his
body, felt apathetic, and got tired
easily. He was not able to run quickly,
or even to clench his fists with his
usual strength and had a feeling as
though he wanted to wriggle and writhe.
In every other respect he is perfectly
healthy man, very capable and active,
physically strong and slightly nervous"
In a clinic the fellow was made to
swallow some cane sugar to see what
happened. The effects were severe and
almost immediate. His face became
flushed. he felt feverish, suffered from
suffocation and complained of pressure
In the pit of the stomach It was four
hours before he recovered. For a long
time afterward he could not even think
OF sugar without feeling of revulsion
and refused to be the subject of any
more such experiments.
One of his sisters consented to swallow
some sugar, but at once became violently
III and cured herself by eating a slice
OF rye bread sprinkled with salt. She
SAID she would rather starve than eat
piece of cake. brother, who suffers
from the same disability, has been able
to train himself to drink little beer
and vodka. Another sister has the
malady only in mild form. She can
drink a small quantity Of slightly
sweetened tea and actually likes cock
tails. She cannot eat cake, pie. honey.
fruit or jam.
DR.. Davidenkov thought at first that
the popularity might be some extreme
allergic reaction to sugar. He found the
same results. however, when he used
saccharin, which tastes sweet but has
no sugar. Also the victims of the malady
can eat sugars which are not sweet, of
which there are many known to chem
lists.
Filter bridges and Sweepstakes"
bridges by which mammals have spfead
from one continent to another were de-
scribed before the Washington Academy
of Sciences the other night by DR.. George
Gaylord Simpson Of the American Mu-
scum of Natural History.
Present knowledge of mammal dis
tribution, DR.. Simpson said, gives little
support to the existence in the past of
wide corridors between continents
through which whole animal popula-
tions passed back and forth The most
common means of distribution, he
said, has been by the filter bridge,
which will let through some animals in
one or both directions, and serve as an
impossible barrier for others. Such was
the precursor of the Isthmus of Panama
In the early Ice Age period. Physically
there was a complete land connection,
yet the bison were never able to cross
into South America and the monkeys
were unable to come north.
Spotty distribution can be accounted
for, he said, on the basis of sweepstakes"
bridges. These would be island stepping
stones across broad bodies of water or
RATS of floating vegetation, etc. Whether
an animal crosses by means of such
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