Evening star., 1942-03-17
Of Stars, Men .,sws.
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BY Thomas Il. Henry.


BY Thomas 4. Henry.
Deficiency In diets OF two vitamins.
thiamin and ribofavin, about doubles
the susceptibility to fatal pneumonia in
fections-in mice and probably in
humans.
This is the conclusion OF two United
States Public Health Service doctors.
w. H. Sebrell and Jerald G. Wooley,
from series Of eight experiments.
Hitherto, they explain, much has been
written about increased liability to In
fections because of lack of vitamins, but
there has been little real evidence.
In each experiment they divided their
animals in three groups One was given
diet sufficient in all the vitamins. One
was given the same diet, with the excep-
ton that the thiamin-so-called nerve"
vitamin-was cut down to an amount
barely sufficient to sustain life. The
third group was placed on the same
restriction with respect to ribofiavin. one
of the vitamin B complex. Lack of 1t in
humans causes a condition which has
been confused with pellagra.
After the mice were established on
these diets pneumonia germs were placed
in their noses. The doses were sum-
cient to cause pneumonia In any animal.
The difference was found in the total
death rate and In the length Of life
after incubation OF those who sue
cumbed.
The value Of the experiments rests
largely on the extreme care with which
they were controlled. There was a pos
sibility that the real difference was due
to the failure of appetite due to the
ribofavin and thiamin deficient diets.
This was controlled by limiting the
amount of food eaten by the animals
receiving a normal diet to that naturally
eaten by those on the restricted diets.
Essentially the same results were OBJ
tanned. The experiments were checked
further by trying out the different diets
on litter mates OF the same sex. In
every case the greater susceptibility to
infection was observed. and the illness
of the vitamin deficient animals was
more likely to prove fatal.
Drs. Sebrel and Wooley, however,
found that when injections OF thiamin or
ribofiavin from to 10 times the normal
amounts were given to the deficient-diet
animals at the time of incubation and
every day thereafter there was no re-
duction in the death rate.
n
Dreams OF gold lured the Spanish con-
quistador Coronado northwestward from
New Mexico in the summer OF 1541.
He sought the tabled province Of
Quivira"-supposedly great and
wealthy kingdom. He found instead .
land Of strawhouse villages inhabited by
quite ordinary Plains Indians who re-
ceived him peacefully enough. They
were hunters and small-scale farmers.
They lived in land of black, rich soil
well watered with springs and rivers and
aboundins with grapes, plurns and null
berries. 1t was the best-looking country
the Spaniards had traversed.
The location of Quivira, 30 far as 1t can
be determined from contemporary ac-
counts Of the Coronado expedition, long
has been debatable Five years ago the
Smithsonian Institution started an
archaeological survey of Kansas under
the direction of DR.. Waldo r. Wedel and
one result has been an accumulation Of
evidence, just reported in bulletin OF
the institution, which locates Quivira in
the Arkansas Basin in the southern and
central portions of the State.
Preliminary archaeological investiga-
tions reported by DIR. Wedel that this
was the habitat of widespread and nu-
merous semi-sedentary people practicing
a rn-bean-squash horticulture. There
are numerous aboriginal village sites.
There is striking uniformity in the pot
terry and other cultural remains.
Discovery of chain mail fragments,
glass beads and an iron Ak blade indi-
Gates that the sites were inhabited dur
ing very early period Of white contact.
Turquoise and obsidian are evidence of
trade relations with the Pueblo Indians
of the Southwest, from whom Coronado
learned of Quivira.
The Indians, DR.. Wedel believes, were
Wichitas.
There was no certain evidence of house
sites but numerous large storage pits
and refuse mounds indicated relatively
permanent occupation Charred corn and
wild fruit pits, along with quantities OF
bison, antelope and other bones. show
that subsistence was based partly on
hunting and partly on horticulture.
There are many stone and bone tools,