Evening star., 1941-06-17
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.


Government chemists are forging new
weapons against totalitarianism - tne
totalitarianism of insect populations
which is an even greater threat to human
security in the long run than Its made
ouate man-made limitations now run
ming wild in the world.
The progress during the past decade
has Just been reported by the Bureau OF
Entomology of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture. 1t has been
constant search for poisons which Will
kill bugs and-if possible-be harmless
to man, who is the insects only rival
for the food supply of the earth.
A standard weapon Is nicotine from
tobacco deadly poison to both insect
and man. A million pounds OF 1t now
are used by American farmers, largely
on fruit trees. This has been made pos
sible largely by two new developments
the combination of the poison with peat
and with type of clay known as bento-
mite. In these forms it leaves no poison
GUS residue which must be washed OF the
fruit. Within the next few years, 1t is
believed, double this amount will be en-
ployed-which will provide market for
approximately 130,000,000 pounds OF
cheap tobacco, which now is drug on
the market.
Poisons akin to nicotine have been
sought in other plants. One of the most
valuable was isolated by a Department
of Agriculture chemist in weed found
only in Russia. Search now is IN prog
ress for some American plant which con-
tains this substance. anahasine.
Flowers of certain species Of chry-
santhemums long have been known to
possess insectidal value. Under the name
OF pyrethum, as much as 10000 900
pounds of these flowers have been i'm
ported annually-largely for household
and cattle fly sprays. 1t is potent poi
son for house flies. The Department. of
Agriculture chemists have determined
that 1t contains, in fact, two poisons.
One only knocks the fly out, while the
other kills it. The first of these has been
isolated in pure form and the way has
been opened to possible synthesis of
both
The most remarkable OF the new
poisons developed is rotenone, obtained
largely from the roots of South Amer
lean plant of the bean family. More
than 100000 pounds now are imported
annually to combat cabbage worms, the
Mexican bean beetle and other insects
attacking truck crops and gardens.
Rotenone and related compounds also
60 into fly sprays, and various green
house insecticides. To such insects as
the bean aphid 1t is more than 30 times
as poisonous as lead arsenate, widely
used in the past, while 1t is only one
thirtieth as deadly to rabbits. A poison
Gus action on man, it Is believed, either
is lacking or negligible.
A notable development has been the
discovery of this substance In several
common American weeds, chief Of which
is the devils shoestring, common through
most of the Southern United States.
- ~
A strange hunting preserve is In the
Bridger Basin of Southern Wyoming.
There DR.. Charles L. Gain, Smith
sonian Institution paleontologist this
summer will stalk creatures dead for
100000 years-among them the re-
mote ancestral relatives of the horse,
rhinoceros, tapir and the strange
northarctus, primitive lemur belonging
to the primate family.
Their bones are in the Bridger rocks.
They constitute representative assem-
- oy,iy,oolc Trbie ic
the period in geological history when the
great family of odd-toed ungulates. to
which the horse belongs, were differ
entiating into something like their pres
ent forms.
The dominant animal, however, was
fantastic creature known as the uinta-
there, which resembled the rhinoceros
more in outward appearance than any
other extant creature. but which cannot
be considered in that line of evolution.
After mid-Eocene times it disappeared
from the earth, making way for more
eficient forms represented by present.
day groups.
1t must have been fearsome creature.
It had six horns on its skull, and pro-
truding from its jaw were two sabers,
from 10 inches to foot long, similar to
those Of the saber-toothed tiger. Its
face was prolonged into a snout.
Yet it probably was not very formi-
dable. Like most creatures who attain
giganticism, it lived on plants and its
fighting equipment, it is likely, was
primarily for defense.
1t was succeeded as the giant creature
of the earth in the next geological period
by type of animal which was already
differentiated in the mid Eocene-a typi-
cal example Of which was the bronto-
therium. These creatures belonged to
the same general line Of evolution as
the horse and tapir and also were some
what rhinoceroslike in appearance.
They became too highly differentiated
and specialized for their environments,
so that they became extinct while their
humber relatives survived to become the
odd-toed ungulates Of today.
Condemns Blasting Of Horns