Evening star., 1942-08-11
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henrr.

Hitherto unknown behavior of the hui
man brain Is being revealed by war
wounds.
One part, for example, acts like an
automatic phonograph when injured, ac-
cording to report Just received here
from DR.. N. l. -Propper Grashchenkov,
director of the Soviet Institute Of Nerv-
GUS Diseases, where 80 soldier patients
have been treated since last December
Perhaps the weirdest case is described
as follows in a report given out by
the Soviet Embassy here:
"A Tatar named Khusainov was
wounded in the head by mine splinter.
A piece OF metal penetrated deep into
the cerebral mass, pulping the brain It's
sue and particularly the right temporal
lobe. (The region of the brain Just
above the right ear)
He was picked up unconscious on the
field and taken to mobile field hos
pital. For two days he was in q state
OF complete deirium. His rawlings took
on unique form. Lying totally un-
conscious he would recite or sing songs
in the Tatar language.
The explanation of this appears to be
as follows: The left and right tenn
poral lobes of the brain, above the left
and right ears, respectively, are seats
OF sound memory. The left is connected
primarily with speech and the right
with music and songs. In the case of
Khusainov it was the right lobe that
constituted the irritated section during
the first days after the wound had been
inflicted. Part had been pulped and the
rest, although uninjured by the splinter,
was swollen and slightly inf1amed This
led to a unique reproduction of the
sound images that had been impressed
in the temporal region and to auto
matte, unconscious reproduction of these
images in the patients delrium"
In the First World War the functions
OF various parts Of the brain were To-
Called as never before, largely by Ger
man brain specialists, due to study of
the specific effects on behavior of de-
struction Of various areas.
Most of the victims, however, died.
Brain surgery was in its infancy In
of the most notable advances have been
made by Russian surgeons so that to-
day head injuries are much less serious
Few of the wounded have died, although
their injuries have been much more Sc
we're. Some, Of course, are crippled for
life, due TO injuries of motor areas
OF the brain. The worst effects, how
IA
Grashchenkov says.
The more accurate mapping of the
brain, he reports, is enabling the Rus
sian surgeons to circumvent some of the
worst effects. In one case it was found
that the removal Of bullet probably
would destroy the speech centers In
the brain of young lieutenant so that
he would be dumb for the rest of his
life. This was prevented by cutting a
hole through the forehead and taking
out the bullet by completely different
path than that by which 1t had entered.
Some persons have antiseptic blood
which acts mildly against various germs
much as do the sulfa drugs.
This discovery has Just been an
nounced by United States Public Health
Service physicians following study of an
outbreak of meningitis in Federal re-
form school for boys.
This disease, until recently one of the
most fatal which attacks human beings.
may be due to half dozen or more
minute organisms, but most cases are
caused by bug known as the menin-
gococcus which has special affinity for
the Innings Of the brain and spinal cord.
Samples of blood were taken from boys
in the school who had escaped the out
break and various strains of the organ
ism placed in them. All seemed to have
a mild bacteria killing action-probably
developed in the course of human evolu-
ton to prevent the race being wiped
out by this virulent and supposedly
highly contagious malady. But in about
hall the cases this phenomenon was
much more marked than in the others.
The feature Of special interest to Drs.
Sara E. Branham, Arthur P. Kitchens
and Manly B. Root, who report the OBJ
servations, was that the bacteria killing
potency was due to some unknown fac
tor inherent in the blood itself. 1t is
we'll known that the blood stream has
It's defense army-the white blood cells
which rush to the site of an infection
and try to devour the inflnitesimally
minute invaders. This happens with the
meningococci but it was found to be no
more pronounced for those boys having
highly bacteriacidal bloods.
1t also is known that recovery from
a bacterial disease produces In the blood
specific antigens which attack their own
particular kind OF invaders. None of
these boys, however, had had any in
fection
The Public Health Service physicians
are at loss to explain the phenomenon
which may depend on protective func-
ton OF the blood being built up over
many generations in the progress of evo-
lution-eventually to free the race from
danger of this sort of disease.
Whether the same applies to other
bacterial maladies is unknown It NAV
be an explanation of the disappearance
OF some of the deadly epidemic diseases
recorded in the past.