Evening star., 1941-02-13
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
Bu Thomas r. Henry.

In at least one large American city,
Public Health Service Investigations
show, germs OF the malady are present
in nearly half the mouse-infested
houses.
The disease is choriomeningitiS. 1t
apes the dreaded spinal meningitis SO
closely that it was differentiated from
it only five years ago. Thus far nobody
has died of it, but there have been many
long and disabling illnesses. 1t is
caused by filterable virus, whereas the
fatal forms of meningitis are due to in
vasion of the Innings of the brain and
spinal cord by various bacteria, most of
which can now be combated by sulfanil-
amide and related drugs.
Although there hsre been no deaths
to date, a lurking virus disease is viewed
with alarm by Public Health Service
doctors because Of the known tendency
of such infinitesimally minute organ
ismS to undergo great increases in viru-
lence from time to time.
The latest findings have just been re-
ported to the surgeon general by Dr.
Charles Armstrong, diScoverer of the dis
ease, and physicians at Washington
hospitals. Each case thus far studied
has come from a infested house.
Mice trapped from such houses have
shown the virus in their blood. Reports
from all over the United States and
Western Europe show that most per-
sons who have demonstrably had the
disease and now carry antibodieS to it
in their blood are from lower economic
levels whose homes are most likely to
be mouse-ridden. Until the mouse reser-
voir was found this fact led to much
confusion. 1t was learned, for example,
that recovered individuals were most
frequent in jails and public insane hos
pitfalls. This now is explained since the
majority of such persons probably came
from poorer homes. The infection has
no relationship to crime or insanity, per
Sc, nor to any other disease such as
syphilis.
No case has been found where it was
apparent that the virus was spread from
one person to another. While this mode
of transmission has not been ruled out,
it is considered highly improbable
Tests at the Public Health Service lab
oratory also show that it is very diff
ficult TO pass the disease from one mouse
to another.
The disturbing fact was uncovered
however, that female mice pass on the
virus to their offspring, who appear per-
fectly healthy little mice, but act as
carriers of the malady. Human beings
probably get the infection by breathing
house dust. Several cases have been
found among people who have recently
cleaned mouse-infested sheds or barns
and who necessarily breathed large
amounts of dust. This is in line with
findings for the other two dreaded virus
maladies of the central nervous system
-encephalitis and poliomyelitis, which
are believed to get into the nervous
tissue by way of the nose and make
their way towards the brain by way of
the olfactory nerve.
White mice, used as experimental
animals in all medical laboratories, also
are susceptible to the disease and, DR..
Armstrong reveals, three cases have
been found to date among laboratory
workers. One of these was in the Pub
lie Health Service itself and two others
in the Pasteur Institute Laboratories in
Paris, where an extensive study of the
malady has been made.
On high hill overlooking the Mopan
River on the British Honduras Guate-
mala border are the ruins of the old
empire Maya city of Xunan Tunich, the
stone lady"
Excavation of small group of its
mounds evidently covering the remains
of buildings used for residential pur-
poses, has just been reported by j. Eric
S. Thompson, archaeologist of the Car
negie Institution of Washington. The
objects recovered throw light on the
lives of the ordinary citizens" as dis
tinguished from the priestly hierarchy
which dominated Maya life.
Two buildings were uncovered-both
presumably Mayan homes. Both showed
evidence of having been occupied for
several generations with extensive re-
building and repairs. One consisted of
small vaulted room. The other was a
structure of several rooms. of which six
were excavated by Mr.. Thompson.
The city of the stone lady" Mr..
Thompson points out In his report to the
Carnegie Institution, was on the border
of the area of highest culture of the
old empire and some of the artifacts
excavated show that the elements which
formed Mayan civilization were divisible
into two main groups. First was the
lay culture, the sum of such activities of
agriculture simple pottery making,
weaving and basketry. 1t had a simple
religion served by a non n-professional
priesthood, built around personifcations
of the powers of nature. It's deities
were the gods of rain, the four winds,
the soil and hunting
Above this, and possibly with little
contact with it, was the hierarchic cul-
ture with its advanced mathematics,
astronomy, hieroglyphic writing and
stone architecture. With it came the
evolution of series of gods little con-
cerned with the affairs of daily life, and
the consequent rise of a professional
priesthood.
Much the same situation, Mr.. Thomp-
son points out, attended the spread of
Islam. In the case of the Mayas, how
ever, the spread was less regular. 50
that the older and simpler ways of life
are not so completely masked and soma