Evening star., 1941-03-08
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

dBCAbo 14OII ouboto1lNCo CANlCOCO NY bnN-
terra found in soil and sewage, which
can be used to sterilize wounds and
which also promote healing, has just
been reported by the Biochemical Re-
search Foundation of the Franklin In
stitute.
In extraordinary minute amounts one
of them kills streptococci which cause
such diseases as erysipelas, blood poison
ing and rheumatic fever: staphylococci
which cause boils, the Welch bacillus
which causes the gas gangrene which
is one of the most dreaded of war in
fections, and the bacillus which causes
anthrax. 1t also has powerful action
against pneumococci. But the substance
is too poisonous to be used on the inside
of the human body.
Already, however, SO human cases have
been treated with it as an external anti
septic, used in the form of wet dressings,
1t is reported by Dr. Ellice Mcdonald,
director of the Biochemical Foundation
An entirely unexpected effect was that
of causing wounds to heal quickly. This
property has been reported for urea
which has, however, no bactericidal
effect.
From other bacteria, DR.. Mcdonald
reports, a second substance has been iso-
lated, which is at least as powerful as
the first, may be less poisonous, and
not only attacks the same organisms, but
also one of an entirely different family,
an organism responsible for a chronic
Inflammation of the nose
The announcements mark the rapid
progress of one of the most remarkable
chapters in the history of medicine.
Less than a year ago 1t was first an
nounced that something could be OBJ
tanned from soil bacteria which killed
various pathogenic organisms. Now it
actually has been isolated in two forms
and probably soon will be available to
the country's physicians.
Other strains of soil bacteria also have
been found, DR.. Mcdonald reports, which
excrete similar bactericidal substances
and now work is under way to isolate
them in pure state, with the hope that
eventually substance may be found
that lacks poisonous properties for higher
animals, but will still kill other bacteria.
The existence of such a material, he
says, seems highly likely.
The original discovery nearly a year
ago, says DR.. Mcdonald, was that a
broth made from several microorean-
lsms common in the soil about phila-
delphia had the peculiar property of
preventing capsule forming around the
so-called Friedlander's bacillus, the
causative organism for bronchial pneu-
monia. The capsule acts as a coat of
protective armor around the organism
and prevents the white blood cells in the
blood of higher animals from engulf
ing it.
From this broth culture, he explains.
chemists of the Biochemical Foundation
were able to prepare an almost colorless
powder in which practically all the ac-
tivity present in the broth was concen-
trated. Work now is in progress to
purify the extract with the hope of
eliminating the fraction responsible for
its poisonous properties, so that it will
be suitable for internal use. If this
could be done it might prove the SOW
erelgn remedy against pneumonia.
Mans lower jaw some times carries
relics Of the ancestral past of the race
and hints of its future.
This is the conclusion of DR.. Ales
Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthro-
pology OF the Smithsonian Institution,
after an intensive study of more than
5000 Jaws ranging from those of fourth
dynasty Egyptians to modern Alaskan
Eskimos.
The "atavismS," or abnormalities
reminiscent of the distant past, were
found chiefly in the ramus, or ascending
portion OF the jaw around the point
where this branches upward. This has
an evolutionary history, DR.. Hrdlicka
points out. In many of the lower inver-
tebrates and even in some of the man.
mails the upright part does not exist, or
barely begins to manifest itself. 1t is
part of the bone that has been bent up
ward by the development of the teeth
and the shortening of the face into its
human form.
Long before birth, he explains, the
lower jaw begins to take the form of
the adult bone, but the condition still
resembles that found in few mammals,
such as some of the seals and the sea
lions. BY the time the ramus reaches
its full development the atavisms do
likewise. The border of the angle may
be semi-circular, as in many of the
higher animals below the level of the
primate family. 1t may protrude back
ward, as in some of the lemurS, primi-
tive relatives of the apes and man.
Slight differences in lengths of the
two sides of the jaw are the rule, DR..
Hrdlicka says.
The difference is perceptibly greater
in the white race than in any other
branch of the human family, he reports,
and it tends to be slightly larger in
women than men. The cause, he be-
lieves, is the rightsidedness of the ma
jority of human beings, which would
mean slight excess of blood supply and
growth on the right side.