Evening star., 1942-12-07
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. HenrY.

By Thomas r. Henry
More than 5000 British mothers have
served as subjects in far-reaching
experiment to demonstrate the value of
proper prenatal nutrition on the we'll
being of the mother herself and the
babys chances of survival
Results Of the test have just been re-
ported by the London correspondent Of
the American Medical Association.
Nearly two years ago crucial expert
ment was reported from the University
Of Toronto, in which group OF prospec-
tive mothers from poorer sections of the
city who attended a prenatal clinic
were given substantial additions to their
normal diets. An equal group served as
controls, eating the same food as always.
Both the number of deaths in child
birth and of still births were decreased
notably in the treated group. Their
children were healthier after birth and
progressed much faster. One drawback
to the experiment was the relatively
small number involved, making con-
clusions difficult to draw.
The ordinary diet of the British women
was surveyed and found to be fairly
adequate. In about 10 per cent of the
cases, however, there was deficiency
of the element calcium due to too little
milk and cheese, and only 2 per cent
were receiving enough iron. More than
half the women got too little vitamin A
and there were deficiencies in both the
B complex of vitamins and in vitamin
c, protector against scurvy.
A group Of eminent gynecologists ap-
pointed by the Peoples League OF
Health prescribed an adequate supple
ment, which made up these deficiencies.
1t was given to half the women in the
experimental group.
The first test was on the prevalence
Of the so-called "toxemia of pregnancy"
common condition everywhere.
1t is an infection. often of undeter-
mined origin, accompanying pregnancy,
which is manifested by an increase in
blood pressure, sometimes mild fever,
and by an increase in white blood cells
modified to fight the invading Or
ganisms.
The supplementary diet it was found,
decreased this about 80 per cent
The condition is the starting point of
some OF the worst problems encountered
by the obstetrician
There was also, the British doctors re-
port, striking decrease in the number
OF premature births and still births.
Sufficient time has not elapsed to check
on the development of the babies, as
was done in the Toronto experiment.
A new span in the bridge over a great
chasm of time between the first inhabi-
tants Of North America and the Indians
of the historical period was found
in Eastern Wyoming during the past
summer by DR.. Frank H. H. Roberts, jr,
Smithsonian Institution archeologist
The site, discovered more than 25
years ago by sheepherder, apparently
was former bison wallow-a bog or
meadow fed by springs where the ami
mails came to drink or roll in the mud.
1t was evidently old-perhaps from 1000
to 5000 years old.
The special significance OF the site
excavated by DR.. Roberts is that con-
siderable number of spear points of
curious design. known as Yuma points,
are found there in association with the
bones Of existing species of bison
The Oldest spearhead thus far known
on this continent is the so-called Folsom
point-delicately Clipped in a somewhat
standardized design-which has been
found in undoubted association with
bones Of long extinct animals. 1t dates
back between 10000 and 10000 years.
The Yuma point is heavier and more
crudely Clipped. But in several places
1t has been found mixed with Folsom
points, leading to conjectures that its
users either were contemporaries of Fol-
som man or preceded him. The finds
this past summer definitely dispose of
this theory. The bison hunters of the
Eastern wyoming site obviously were
much later-probably several thousand
years later-than the Folsom hunters of
the last Ice age, when the modern
species of bison was unknown.
Thus, 1t can be assumed, the site falls
somewhere between Folsom and modern.
1t was far enough away from the former
so that the Folsom influences in spear
point style had disappeared It was far
enough Nfrom the latter to have pre-
ceded the development of the bow in
bison hunting