Evening star., 1941-02-19
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

oy ftOHtAc &t' 1AS'" -
A two faces" disease-one OF the
rarest of medical anomalies-has just
been reported from two hospitals OF the
United States Veterans Administra-
tion.
One side of a victims face changes
in appearance until 1t becomes es-
sentially that of another person. The
other side remains unchanged.
There Is a progressive wasting away
of the bones and soft tissues OF the
changing side while the nerves ana
muscles apparently are unaffected. In
this way the condition is differentiated
sharply from any form of facial paralysis.
The process is sharply limited at the
midline so that the face looks as II IL
were made up Of two halves from two
different persons" in the words OF one
observer.
A total of fewer than 500 cases have
been known in the world during the past
century. Once the change starts 1t
progresses rapidly, but there is no other
known disability. The cause Is un-
known but DrS. Max o. Wolfe and
Manuel L. Weber Of the veterans
Bureau Hospital at Dearborn, Mich.
have Just reported an extensive study
of their single case, which led them
to believe it might be quite closely as
Sociated with epilepsy.
The victim was discharged soldier
who told the doctors that when he
was 20 years old he began to have
feeling of continuous but light pres
sure on the top of the head, "ike
pencil resting on the skull" Shortly
afterwards a bald spot appeared near
the front of the skull on the left side.
At almost the same time he noticed the
left eye began to sink in, groove
formed on the left side of the chin, and
a slight depression over the left temple.
At no time was there any pain but
during the next few years he developed
several attacks of Inconsistencies. They
would come suddenly, usually during
some excitement. This continued until
he was SO when he came to the Veterans
Bureau for treatment.
Several cases have been reported in
which there was some injury TO the
side Of the face which may have in
terfered with the nerves but, Drs. Wolfe
and Weber point out, thousands Of
similar injuries are followed by no such
weird results. There must be, they
reason, a deeper lying cause in certain
individuals which is thrown into action
by some slight injury. Emotional in
stability IS a common finding.
The basic cause, they believe, lies in
the sympathetic nervous system, which
largely controls the dilation and con-
traction of the blood vessels and is pro-
foundly Influenced by any emotion. Thus
an extreme emotion can cause a faint
ing spell by contracting the blood
supply to the brain. The same SYM
pathetic nervous system also may un-
derlie attacks of epilepsy by producing
a complete, momentary "devasculara-
ton" of the brain-so that the same
effect is produced as comes from cutting
off the top of the brain of an expert
mental animal.
In some way not understood, the SYM
pathetic systems of persons with the
two faces disease" shut off large part
of the supply to the facial blood vessels
on one side, rather than to the brain.
The side of the face faints permanently,
so to speak.
At the same time a case report of the
strange disease has just been received
from DR.. Daniel H Werba of the
Veterans Administration Hospital at
Minneapolis. This man was a World
War veteran, 81 years old, who re-
manned almost entirely normal except
for his weird appearance. Each side
of the face continued to function as
well as ever.
Apparently there Is no cure for the
condition, the Veterans Administra-
ton doctors say, but the appearance can
be partially restored by plastic surgery.
~
Taking advantage Of technique for
testing wool developed by the United
States Department of Agriculture, DR.
Morris Steggerda and his assistant, Mrs.
Ruth Eckardt of the Carnegie Institu-
ton of Washington are able for the first
time to determine quickly and ade-
quately the size pattern of the hairs on
anybodys head.
1t has long been known that the hair
of races differs in thickness but the
difficulty of measuring the breadths of
enough single strands to have any statis
tical importance has been so great that
the subject has remained relatively OBJ
scure. Under the new method, DIR.
Steggerda reports, it is possible to do in
10 minutes what formerly required two
to three days. Already it has been pos
sible to set tentative standards for races
so that samples of hair taken from
Indians, colored persons and whites
could be classified as belonging to a
specific racial group. 1t seems prob
able that this technique can also be
applied to smaller racial units.
The breadth measurements are made
| In microns, or thousandths of a mili-
meter. Credit for the method is given
by DR.. Steggerda to DR.. j. T. Hardy,
Department of Agriculture scientist. The
device is small metal plate, 3 inches
wide, an inch long and an eighth of an
inch thick. 1t has narrow slot, three
eighths of an inch long, into which can
be packed from $50 to 200 hairs depend
ing on their thickness. They then
are cut off even with the metal plate on
both sides. The next step is to push them
partly through the slot by means of a
metal screw. The layer Of protruding
hair tips then is coated with a thin
solution of celluloid. When the solution