Evening star., 1942-02-03
OF Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

And Study
| By Thomas r. Henry.
Millions of pounds Of two essential war
materials can be obtained from sugar
cane.
This has been determined in expert
ments just reported by Department Of
Agriculture chemists.
Hitherto the two substances+wax and
aconitic acid-have gone to waste. Most
significant is wax. A considerable part
Of the normal American supply has been
imported in the past and the sources now
are closed. 1t is especially significant, the
chemists say, for q variety Of necessary
naval materials and the search for q
new source was undertaken at the Nays
request. .
A fair quality Of wax covers the surface
Of the sugar cane stalk. It has been q
nuisance. 1t was largely dislodged and
flushed of in milling operations and has
to be removed from the cane Juice.
The Government chemists, they an.
nounced, have found q way Of extracting
| ~ SACdPAy oiAA q PAAot PAdAAt AAoo pCCn SCt
up to determine costs under actual manu-
featuring conditions Several million
pounds can be obtained annually from
the sugar cane processed In the United
States without turning to the Cuban or
Puerto Rican crops, they say.
Acotinic acid Is essential in the manu-
facture Of many Of the plastics vitally
needed for war industries 1t now is pro-
duced by chemical process from citric
acid at a relatively high price.
1t is, the Department of Agriculture
chemists say, the principal organic acid
in both sugar cane and in the sorghum
cane which is grown extensively in the
South and Central Midwest. Here again
it has been a nuisance. 1t comes out in
the juices as an impurity which may
cause considerable spoilage and must be
eliminated
The best source they have found to
date Is molasses Sometimes the recovery
Is as much as 8 per cent. The investi-
cation also has shown that the acid
occurs in relatively large quantities in
the discarded tops Of the cane, hitherto
almost a complete waste.
In both cases, however, acotinic acid
occurs In combination with other sub
stances and the Government chemists
now are at work on ways of separating
it on commercial basis. Again, they
say. the available supply runs into mil
lions of pounds year without sacrificing
anything else in the sugar cane.
A new type of diphtheria is rampant
in the earth.
First discovered in Germany about IS
years ago, it recently gained its first foot
hold in the New World at Halifax, where
It has been checked, at least temporarily,
by II experts sent from the Harvard
University medical school.
One of its worst outbreaks has been
in Ireland. where it is known as 'black
diphtheria." 1t does not react well to
diphtheria antitoXin and presumably q
new and quite stable strain of the diph-
liberia bacillus is involved. For nearly
30 years medical science was confident
that this malady, for centuries one of the
worst killers of children, was essentially
conquered. Now, says the Journal of the
American Medical Association, there is
q growing pessimisn and perplexity" and
much OF the work must be done all
over again.
The first sign that all was not well
came in 1927, when two German doctors
reported that the death rate from diph-
liberia in large Berlin hospital, where
all the instruments Of modern medicine
had been used skillfully. had risen from
an expected 5 per cent to more than Is
per cent. In the next few years similar
situations were reported from Czecho-
Slovakia, France, Italy and Rumania.
Then came large outbreak in Ireland
Dublin experimenters are credited with
the theory of the new disease now con-
sidered most logical Both the old and
new maladieS, they determined, produce
two kinds of poisons-toxins A and B.
which act together in a malignant part
nership. Neither is exceptionally fatal
when 1t works alone
The old diphtheria bacillus produced
lots of toxin A and very little of toxin B.
The standardized diphtheria antitoxin
which had saved the lives of hundreds
Of thousands Of children acted chiefly to
neutralize the former poison and had
little effect on the second. The new
diphtheria, the Irish doctors decided, pro-
duced chiefly toxin B. An antitoxin con-
tanning two antibodies apparently is
needed to overcome the combined effect.
A notable finding was that diphtheria
immunization to which most American
schoolchildren are subjected, has little
effect on susceptibility to the new disease.
The black diphtheria bacillus has little
effect in forming strangling membranes
in the throat, as did the old one Instead,
it spreads rapidly through the body and
attacks the kidneys. heart, adrenal glands
and nervous system.
The Harvard doctors at Halifax, how
ever, found that good effects were OBJ
tained by administering the sulfa drugs,
chiefly sulfadiazine, together with routine
antiserum The sulfadiazine presumably
did not specifically overcome the dreaded
toxin B, as the antiserum neutralized
toxin A, but prevented multiplication Of
the bacteria itself.