Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-05
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study

IN LABORATORY, Fieid
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
The savage red mans war paint is the
newest evolution drug"
Department of Agriculture specialists
have reported recently that the chemical
sanguinaridine, applied to seeds, will
produce new species Of plants, some of
superior quality. This would require
countless generations in the normal
process of evolution.
Sanguinaridine is the active principal
of the blood of the bloodroot, golden
centered white flower which is one of the
earliest spring boomers in damp wood
lands throughout Eastern North Amer
lea. Broken off near the root, this plant
gives off a red liquid which looks like
blood. Indian warriors used it to paint
their faces in the most devilish designs
In Colonial days physicians, still OBJ
sessed with the idea of sympathetic
magic, thought 1t must be good for all
sorts of blood diseases
For the past century it has had a
limited, but legitimate, use in cough
medicines. The alkaloid which 1t con-
tains is mildly poisonous.
A few years ago it was discovered that
the drug colchichine, derived from the
European crocus and long used in treat
ment of govt, had remarkable effect
when applied to plants. 1t doubled the
chromosomes, or hereditary units, in
their cells. When this happened to the
reproductive cells contained in the seeds,
new species appeared The line Of
heredity was broken and a new line
started, something entirely novel among
living things.
Already several new species Of value
to man have been created. Colchichine
has also been applied to animals and in
one recent experiment insects with
bigger brains, transmitted from parents
to offspring, were created. Less efficient
than colchichine for the same purpose is
strychnine. Both drugs are extremely
poisonous. Many of the treated plants
or animals die.
DR.. Thomas M. Little of the Depart
ment of Agriculture staff found that
much the same effects could be produced
with the war paint alkaloid, which is far
less poisonous. He already has created
some new species of snapdragons. The
discovery came from experiments with
weak solutions of the drug to prevent
the growth of destructive root rot
fungous on plants.
Parasitic diseases of the tropics, largely
confined to those areas in the past, now
loom as potential menace to the health
of individuals everywhere.
They include malaria and the deadly
African sleeping sickness.
Such is the declaration of DR.. James
T. Culbertson, Columbia University bac-
teriologist.
"All parasitic infections now seem
likely to experience new and wide
spread distribution to fresh areas as a
consequence of the rise in business and
possible says DR.. Culbertson. Work
ers or travellers returning by airplane
from areas long notorious as disease
centers may not reveal symptoms Of the
infections they have contracted until
after they reach home. The chance of
is enhanced
When untreated many parasitic in
fections endure for years and some al
most invariably end fatally But it is
a most fortunate fact that for most of
these infections specific drugs are
known which lead to cure. Sometimes
the cures are dramatic and prompt, the
parasite being eradicated at once and
the symptoms being alleviated very soon
Malaria is the most important disease
Of man in the tropics. More persons
suffer from the infection in warm CHI
mates than from any other disease and
nobody living in the endemic areas can
expect TO remain free of it. Fortunately
specific therapeutics long have been
known.
1t is known, DR. Culbertson points out,
that man may acquire a temporary i'm
munity to malaria and there have been
recent investigations of the possibility
of immunization by vaccination. AS yet,
however, the attempts have been dis
couraging Experimental vaccination in
monkeys also has resulted unfavorably
although some success has been reported
Immunity to most diseases also can be
acquired passively. Antibodies which are
developed in one individual can be trans
ferred with blood or serum to another
in which they act. A few investigators
claim to have had some favorable re-
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