Evening star., 1941-09-30
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

SCiHl VI WiliCii ildo llUI Uccil lSOldIeu.
Such Is the contention of Drs. E. H.
Lennette, E. r. Rickard, G. K. Hirst and
F. L. Horsfall, jr., of the Rockefeller
Foundation, in a report just made to
the United States Public Health Service
Drs. Lennette and Horsfall year ago
produced the influenza vaccine against
the virus of the disease which already
had been isolated-the so-called in
| fluenza A." At about the same time it
was found by various investigators that
there was an influenza B." caused by a
| different virus, against which the vac
cine had no effect.
Last winter, the Rockefeller Founda-
| ton physicians report, they studied a
series of mild epidemics near New York
| City and widespread outbreak in North
Carolina. Neither the A or B virus re-
actions were obtained from many of the
cases. The same condition has been
| found in outbreaks in Cuba and Puerto
Rico. Ferrets, which are susceptible to
both the known viruses, apparently are
immune to the new disease agent.
1T seems evident" the doctors re-
port, that more than one variety of
influenza may, and often does, occur in
single outbreak.
Evidence was obtained that a large
proportion of all the cases in the epi-
denies studied were infected either by
influenza A or influenza B virus, but
there remained in each epidemic an
onnrapio b1p number nf in which
no evidence of infection by these agents
could be demonstrated These repre-
sented more than 80 per cent of all the
cases studied.
1T was not possible to distinguish on
clinical grounds between cases in this
category and those in which evidence of
infection by either A or B virus was de-
monstrable.
1T now seems logical to advance the
| hypothesis that there exists at least
one additional infectious agent distinct
| from either A or B, which is capable of
| causing cases of influenza during epi-
denies of this disease. 1t becomes ap-
parent that in some epidemics of the
disease one of at least three. distinct
causal agents may have been responsible
for certain proportion of the cases
studied"
The third variety of flu virus promises
| to be extremely difficult to track down,
since the animals with which A and B
can be tested show no reaction to it.
1t may be something new in the world,
due to genetically established change in
one of the other viruses, to which human
beings alone are yet susceptible.
The presence of the third virus, Public
Health Service physicians point out, may
in part explain the indifferent success
achieved last winter with the influenza
vaccine devised by two Rockefeller
| Foundation doctors
With advancing age ont becomes less
Lungs. spleen, arteries and tendons
don't stretch so easily and this may
become one Of the chief chemical phe-
nomena of growing old, the American
| Chemical Society was told by DR.. ]
Murray Steele of New Yorks Welfare
Hospital.
1t all depends on a recently discovered
rubbery substance in the body known as
elastin. Pure preparations of it bound
back after stretching like a rubber band
1t has the same bouncing property as
rubber balls and children.
DR.. Steele and his associates have
measured the elastic coeff1cient both
of pure elastin and. through specially de-
veloped electrical methods with ami.
mails, in intact tissue.
THE results" he said, "have tended
almost universally to show that arterie:
and tendons become less eXtensible with
increase of age. There are many diff
culties in the method, principally be.
cause elastic tissue alone is not beine
studied. Effects of muscle, of connective
tissue, of disease process such as the dis.
position of fat and calcium and tn.
destruction of elastic tissue must bs
accounted for"
He believes an intensive study of elias.
tin might provide many clues as to why
one grows old-and why some age faster
than others.
Other significant and hitherto unrec.
ognized changes with age, entirely apart
from the specific diseases of the elderly
were described to the chemists by DR.
William H. Lewis, jr, of Cornell Uni
versity.
He has found, he said, that the basic
metabolism of the body, measured by the
consumption of oxygen, shows progres.
sive decline. The rate, however, varie:
with individuals and seems to slow ur
between the years Of so and 80. For those
who live beyond four-score it increase.
rapidly.
The kidneys, whose chief function is tt
remove waste products from the body
show little decline in the healthy indi.
vidual before IS. Then changes become
quite accelerated.
One of the most frequently discussed
chemical changes with age is the depo-
sition of calcium on the walls of the
arteries and in other body tissues. Thi.
is largely responsible for cerebral hemor.
rhages. Curiously enough, DR.. Lewi
found, there is no appreciable increase o.
this calcium in the blood itself.
The functions of the heart and ths
vascular system do not behave in &
uniform manner. The minute volume
output of the heart at rest show'
a moderate but progressive decline. Tht
systolic blood pressure, howevo', show!
a moderate increase up to the 60th veal
and an accelerated rise thereafter.