Evening star., 1941-11-22
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

Food values are strangely effected by
emotions.
This is the conclusion from one of the
most objective and dramatic scientific
experiments ever conducted. 1t was
carried out nearly 25 years ago by DR.,
Nikolai K. Koltzoff, one of Russia S
I greatest biologists.
| Details recently have been received by
the Journal of Heredity, official organ Of
| the American Genetic Society, following
| KoltZoffs death last winter.
| He died in high favor with the present
Russian government and had been direc-
tor of the Soviet Institute for Expert
mental Biology after a stormy career
which brought him several times close
to the firing squad
In 1918, shortly after the red govern
| ment came into power, Koltzoff was i'm
prisoned and condemned to death.
The sentence was not to be executed
Immediately, however, and several weeks
were at the disposal of the doomed
scientist. He obtained permission of the
prison warden to use scales and to weigh
himself ard all the food he consumed
during the period before the trial, dur
ing the trial and after passage of the
death sentence.
He kept a record of the food and the
general metabOlic relations and COM
puted the intake in terms of calorieS.
He found that the curve of weight was
first horizontal and that during the
trial it went down in spite Of the fact
that an undiminished amount Of food,
with the same calories. was consumed.
It went down sharply after the death
sentence was pronounced and continued
to decline steadily until he was pardoned
and set free
The day he was released Koltzoff
carried a heavy knapsack, containing
food and all his belongings, and walked
several miles during the day and the
next. All the time he somehow managed
TO keep track Of his weight and the
calorieS consumed. He found that in
spite of his strenuous physical exercise
and without any increase in the amount
Of food consumed, his weight remained
the same AT first and then underwent
a considerable gain.
An account of his experiment was
published in Moscow under the nom
suggestive title: The Balance of Human
Weight During an Unstable Equili-
brium.'
Weighing the whisky breath" IS the
newest way TO diagnose drunkenness.
II is described in the current issue of
the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, organ
of the Alcohol Research Council of the
American Association for the Advance
ment of Science.
They have determined, report Drs w.
w. letter, Merrill Moore and G. c. For
roster, that a chemical substance known
as magnesium perchlorate is a perfect
medium for the absorption Of alcohol
vapors. 1t takes up almost Immediately
100 per cent of all the alcohol which is
breathed against it.
They found that with an air flow of
one liter per minute five grams of the
magnesium perchlorate absorbed all the
alcohol vapors in concentrations ranging
from three to thirty milligrams per liter
about what would be expected in
whisky breath. Then the chemical can
be weighed and the minute increase in
weight tells the story.
In order to get ratio of the amount
Of alcohol to that of the total expired
air it is necessary also TO weigh the
jc Nv,
of a preparation of caustic soda fused
on asbestos. This is an almost perfect
absorbent for carbon dioxide In
series Of experiments it was found that
by using IS grams of this preparation
and rate of breath flow of one liter
per minute it was most improbable that
any of the gas escaped.
The breath-weighing apparatus is
small and compact. The subject blows
into a rubber balloon through a mouth
piece A thin rubber tube acts as a
valve to prevent the escape of any air
backwards. From the balloon the air
flows into a tube containing the mag
nesium perchlorate and from there into
another tube containing the asbestos
preparation.
The real criterion of drunkenness, of
course, is not the alcohol in the breath
but the alcohol in the blood. PhySi0lo-
gists are agreed that when this reaches
a certain percentage a man is drunk,
whether or not his overt behavior in
dicates such a state. BY an effort of
the will he may be able to control his
actions for the brief period of an ex-
animation.
The blood test, however, is not easy
and there is some question in many
States as to whether one is obliged to
submit to it. 1t has been thrown out
of court as evidence on the grounds
that it was obtained by force.
But. the devisers of the breath weigh
ing test say, preliminary work on 100
cases shows a satisfactory correlation
between the breath alcohol-carbon di-
oxide ratio and the blood alcohol con-
centration. If their findings are con-
frmed, policemen may carry the kits
around with them.
Calls JpOn Congress