Evening star., 1941-09-25
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

anu oOE'll4oIo.
This is especially true, DR.. Ernest w.
Burgess of the University of Chicago de-
clared before the American Association
for the Advancement of Science here
today, among the girls
They are cynical and sophisticated, he
said, in proportion to the size of the city
where they live and 'the shop girl on
her way down town puts on her New
York face, or Chicago face, or Cleveland
face"
In some ways, DR.. Burgess pointed out,
this is change for the better 1t makes
people more tolerant. They must be to
live amongst their fellows.
In other ways, he insisted, the change
threatens to wreck society. 1t substi-
tutes commercialized entertainment for
participation in social events, breeds
cynical attitudes towards life, and is
su5verSive because 1T undermineS and
destroys the fabric of social relations
which makes up society"
The process of SociaHzation." he said,
seemed naturally to function in the
intimate personal environment of the
rural neighborhood but requires direc-
ton and guidance in the external, i'm
personal, secular environment OF the
city. significant manifestation of
Sophlstication is the effect of the motion
picture to diminish the influence of the
family, the church and the neighbor-
hood by drawing the child and the
adolescent into the great society.
Fifty years ago the young girl had
as her ideal the lady of the neighbor-
hood who baked the best cake, sang in
the church choir, or was the social
leader. Now her ideal is the moving
picture star in faraWay Hollywood.
"Sophistication is the result of a COM
pleX OF city experiences. External evi-
dences are the greater attention to
dress, to style, to grooming, to makeup,
TO manners and the poise. The degree
of sophiStication varies directly with the
size of the city, and by community
within the city.
There are those who maintain that
by gaining the world Of the modern city
man has lost his soul. To them the
destined to destroy his creator or re-
duce him to robot
There is some truth in this criticism.
Transplanted to the urban environment
people have become less sympathetic
and sentimental and oftentimes dis
illusioned and cynical. But sophistica-
ton has positive value and to the eX-
for tN1a i
cosmopolitanism it represents an initial
adjustment to the city way of life"
The modern child comes into a con-
fusing world, Dr. Margaret Mead of the
American Museum of Natural History,
anthropologist who has made intensive
studies of child-rearing among primi-
tive peoples, told the same meeting.
In old-fashioned society mother and
grandmother had been reared in the
same traditions. Now they may have
vastly different ideas of life. The
mother may rock baby to sleep while
she sings the latest swing song while
grandma, gently disapproving. sits in the
corner and huns Sweet Genevieve"
The two belong to generations very far
oPoAb 4lOlll CoNil Ob1INls " lllC DdUgs
formulating its first ideas of the world,
the whole pattern is a horrid mess.
The result, she said, is that the child
grows up without any idea of the con-
tinuity of culture or of a continuing
racial or family tradition that must be
followed. The growing boy or girl
speaks of my generation" as something
IifTnroyot that
before and even jazz-time mamma be-
comes hopelessly old fashioned.
With this idea impressed on children
from the cradle, DR. Mead intimated.
the next generation will be even more
confused than the present.
Fighters should be red meat eaters.
Lean meats are the richest, easily
available foods in two substances
cystine and methionine-which act as
barriers to two poisons encountered in
everyday life and especially in some of
the toxic gases used in the first World
War, Fordham University chemists told
the American Chemical Society this
week
They have tested their findings with
dogs, rabbits pigs, rats and mice, Drs.
Jakob A. Stekel and William J. Conway
explained to the chemists, and have
come to the conclusion that it would be
just too bad if vegetarian Adolf Hitler
got a dose of some of the gases his
agents are supposed to have prepared.
One of the poisons is pyridine Work
ers in defense industries are likely to get
present in tobacco smoke and is the
chief substance from which the alkaloid
nicotine is built up in nature. The
other is the even more frequently en-
countered benZene which is the basis
for some of the war gases. 1t is used
in the preparation of cyanide.
Both cyStine and methionine in small
amounts, such as would be obtained from
almost any diet, are essential to life.
Without them there can be no growth.
They both are sulfur- containing amino
acids split off from foods in the process
of digestion.
young rats which were fed one-half
of one per cent of pyridine in diet
which was low in proteinS-the food
elements from which the amino acids
are derived-died within, five days"
Drs. Stekel and Conway reported. "On
the other hand all rats were alive after
six weeks during which half of one per
cent of methionine was fed together
wit n