Evening star., 1941-09-16
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

There is an anti-louse vitamin.
Rats, at least, do not suffer from
"pediculosis"-the medical term for lou
sinesS-when their diets contain plenty
of riboflavin, one of the B complex OF
vitamins which now is being put in
flour by several milling companies al
though it is not required by Govern
ment standards.
This was announced before a SYM
postum on the biological action of vita
minis at the University of Chicago today
by Dr. Paul Gyorgy of Western Reserve
University. Cleveland.
Chronic ribof1avin deficiency in rats"
DR.. Gyorgy said, has been found in our
Investigations to be often accompanied
by pediculosis. At first this was regarded
as a purely accidental and unspecified
occurrence, related possibly to the gen.
orally diminished vitality in these rats
because they would be unable to keep
themselves clean in the efficient manner
of normal animals.
''The majority of rats with pediculosis,
however, were by no means weakened or
inactive. Moreover, the condition has
never been observed in rats receiving a
vitamin-free diet supplemented with
vitamin B-l and riboflavin. even when
they were near death from other vitamin
deficiencies.
In rats suffering from ribof1avin de-
flciency and also from pediculosis, ad-
ministration of ribofavin was followed
by complete disappearance of the lice.
This was often accompanied by replace
ment of diseased patches by new fur.
That it is possible to cure pediculosis
by nutritional means adds weight to the
conclusion that this condition and ribo-
flavin deficiency in rats, at least under
the conditions chosen, are inter-related.
The practical implications with reference
to skin parasites in men have not yet
been investigated"
The finding becomes of extreme in
terest, however, in military medicine. In
the first World War millions of men on
both sides suffered-in a fashion most
A. E. F. veterans still remember-from
pediculosiS. In other words, they had
cootieS. These have not been reported
in the present conflict which has been
to date war of movement. Coolies, in
turn, are carriers of the most dreaded of
all war maladies, typhus. That it did
not break out among American and
British troops in France still is con-
sidered a miracle. 1t killed millions on
the eastern fronts. Pediculosis was
always attributed to insanitary condi-
tions and was controlled by frequent
indicate plentiful doses of ribof1avin,
which may produce something in the
skin repulsive to lice, may turn out to
be the answer.
He also reported a hitherto unknown
eye condition due to lack of this vitamin.
There is an ingrowth of blood vessels
across the cornea, resulting in con-
stantly bloodshot eyes. These are cured
very quickly by large ribofavin doses.
The vitamin is one of the rarest of
the essential foodstuffs in ordinary diets.
1t is contained in appreciable quantities
in liver, powdered milk, dry alfafa meal,
egg yolkS, Soybean meal and fish liver oils,
Until two years ago there was only
a vague suspicion that it was essential
to human beings. Then DR.. w. H.
Sebrell, jr., and his associates of the
United States Public Health Service
found that lack of it produced curious
disease known as ariboflavinosis. chiefly
characterized by cracks about the cor
ners of the mouth, which had been OBJ
served previously but confused as one of
the manifestations of pellagra.
Human beings suffering from pedic-
ulosis, it was pointed out, also would
most likely suffer from ribofiavin de-
ficiency since, in civilian life, lice are
found only among the poorest element
of the population.
A strange interaction between the
nerve vitamin, thiamin chloride, and
one of the deadliest of nerve poisons,
cobra venom, has just been reported to
the American Chemical Society.
For the past 10 years Dr. David I.
Macht, Baltimore chemist, has been ex-
perimenting with minute doses of the
virulent snake poison as an anesthetic
He has established that it definitely
kills pain.
One of his procedures has been to
raise and lower the pain threshold
in mice. BY means of an ingenious bit
of apparatus, involving the use of a very
weak electric current, it is possible to
determine the smallest amount of pain
stimulus required to make rat squeak
Minute amounts of the venom raise
this threshold. But, DR.. Macht and his
collaboration, DR.. Elizabeth C. Spencer