Evening star., 1942-05-30
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

Sulfathiazol powder, credited with saw
ing hundreds Of lives at Pearl Harbor Is
pulling back from the edge of the grave
persons operated on in the last stages Of
appendicitis when peritonitis and gan
creme already have made their appear
ance.
Hitherto the death rate among such
cases has been very high. Since the new
treatment was started, according to
report to the American Medical Associa-
ton, there has been only one death in
% at the Norwegian-American Hospital
in Chicago, where extensive tests have
been conducted
A few years ago probably the majority
of these would have died. The cases are
reported by Dr. Robert K. Anderson OF
the hospital staff.
The severity of the disease in these %
cases." he says, "can be appreciated from
the fact that the average duration before
operation was 721a hours. Eleven had
perforated appendix and seven a gan
grenouS appendix In 18 cases the sulfa-
thiazol was used Immediately as an
adjunct to surgery, and in five additional
amounts were given either intravenously
or by mouth.
In Is cases there were no complica-
tions. In one, convulsions developed
which resulted in death. In four cases
the sulfathiazol was used late during the
operation in treatment of complications.
The average duration of disqualification
was IA days"
The one fatal case, DR.. Anderson says.
probably is not to be attributed in any
way to the drug. 1t was that OF a s.
year-old child who had been Ill for 80
hours before operation and in whom
perforated appendix was found. A few
hours after the operation commissions
developed the cause of which is un-
known, and the child quickly succumbed.
The primary process, DR.. Anderson ex-
plains is to treat the wound itself with
sulfathiazol. When an actual infection
develops, however, it is necessary to give
the drug so as to check its progress in
the blood stream.
4
The electron microscope, which can
produce more than 100, ,O0O- fold magni-
f1cation is enabling metallurgists to look
inside some of the metals used in vital
parts Of airplanes, guns, warships and
tanks to find out how to make them
stronger and better.
This is chiefly a contribution of DR..
Vincent j. Schaeffer of the General
Electric Research Laboratory, who de-
veloped the method from studying the
structure of snowf1akes with the micro
scope.
Ordinary microscopes, using light,
magnify at the most about $500 diane
tiers. Increases beyond that figure hard
ly are possible, for then the details
become smaller than the light waves
with which they are viewed. This
limitation is removed in the electron
microscope where electrons act like light
waves of a much smaller length. They
can be focused with lenses not of glass,
but Of electrostatic fields inside charged
metal doughnuts.
In this way images as much as so
times the size Of the best enlargement
with light microscopes can be made The
image Is visible on fluorescent screen,
which shines where the electrons strike
Images may be recorded on a photo
graphic plate.
Electrons have little penetrating power,
so the entire microscope must be ex-
hausted of air. Also, the specimen being
magnifed must be very thin for the
beam to get through. Few samples of
metal can be made thin enough to be
viewed in this way.
One method of getting around this
difficulty is to produce very fine films
of the metal by evaporation It is here,
however, that DR.. Schaeffer and his study
Of snowfiakes came into the picture He
had been producing minute details of
snow and frost crystals by casting them
in film made Of new plastic In
this way a film only -millionth of
an inch in thickness reproducing the
exact details Of the crystals can be OBJ
tanned and studied with the electron
microscope
Among the details being revealed are
the ways in which different metals
harden and by variations OF these proc
esses, once they are understood, it might
be possible to make harder or softer
forms at will.