Evening star., 1942-08-22
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas f. Henry.

cessfully with at least three of the sulfa
drugs, experiments Just reported by the
United States Public Health Service
indicate.
At present there is p successful anti
cholera vaccine. now being produced in
millions of doses with the spread of the
war to cholera infeSted lands such as
Burma and India. This is of no use.
however. once an infection has been
established. The latest reports received
by the Public Health Service show about
10000 cases of the disease in this area
The experiments were carried out by
DR.. James j. Grifitts of the Public
Health Service staff. While the cholera
organism is similar in many ways to
the bacteria which are kept under con-
troll by the sulfa drugs, it is aberrant to
such an extent that no concentrations
could me made.
Previous tests by doctors in India had
been discouraging, DR.. Griffitts says
The drugs failed to protect mice innocu-
lated with very heavy doses of the or
ganism, far higher than would be en-
COunteleU Ill ordinary pIdCtlCe.
Dr.. Grifltts injected mice with ap-
proximately 100000 living organisms,
enough to kill 90 to 100 per cent of them
in "a hours. This actually happened in
all the controls not given balancing sulfa
drug injections. Between 80 and 80 per
cent of the others lived through the first
"a hours and half of them survived for
seven days when they were out of danger
He found that both sufathiazol and
sulfadiazine were effective when injected
under the skin, Sulfathiazol and the
relatively new sulfaguanadine protected
the mice when placed in the stomach
with stomach tube This was getting
at the seat of the trouble, since cholera
chiefly manifests itself as an intestinal
malady.
Sulfanilamide proved of little use in
living animals but was effective against
the cholera organism in test tubes
Presumably, once the dosage is de-
termined. these drugs will work as we'll
with men as with mice 1t has been
impossible to date however, to make any
human experiments.
Some Of the worst effects OF old age
may be forestalled by a combined vita
min n-hormone treatment, according to
report made to the American Medical
Association by Dr. V. Korenchevsky,
noted Polish expert on diseases of the
elderly who is now in London.
If the treatment can be standardized,
he believes it might open up new
reservoir of manpower for the rest of
the war and at the same time enable
the aged to endure better the stresses of
the present conflict.
Much of his proposal is based on his
own experiments. The trouble in the
past. he believes. Is that the different
substances have been given separately
and there has been no effort to bring
about balance between them.
Notable in the proposed treatment
would be the use of thyroid extracts. 1t
long has been known. he points out,
that a person with a deficiency of thy
roid secretion looks older than his age.
The skin is wrinkled the hair gets gray
and badness comes early, according to
a set pattern-starting in front and
moving backward toward the nape of
the neck.
Hair usually falls out of the outer
third of each eyebrow. In more pro-
nounced deficiencies the skin becomes
amber. Carries of the teeth usually are
pronounced The adenoids are en-
larged, the voice gets weak and husky
and easy chilling is one of the chief
diagnostic signs Patients get short Of
breath
All these symptoms also occur in nor
NAL aging. They largely can be offset
by thyroid injections.
A deficiency in adrenal gland secre-
ton, DR.. Korenchevsky says, results in
general weakness, easy fatigability,
poorer digestion and increased pigmen-
tation of the skin. These also are symp-
toms of old age.
Even more significant symptoms Of
old age are due to deficiencies in sex
gland secretions in relatively young
persons. They can be controlled by in
jections of the appropriate hormones.
1t is significant that the results in
the young of hormone deficiencies over
lap relatively little, but all occur as
set pattern in aging
In his own experiments in London,
Dr. Korenchevsky says, notable results
have been obtained by treating the aged
with vtamin C and the vitamin B COM
pleX. In each case, he admits the
treatment was given to persons living on
an inadequate diet. so the effects of the
addition of these substances to a normal
diet cannot be stated with any assur-
ance.
1t is essential, he says, for a con-
trolled experiment to be conducted now,
preferably in America, to test the effects
of a higher than normal vitamin diet
In most persons. he believes, the proc
and is well under way at so. 1t gathers
momentum with the years.
In submitting his report to the Amer
ican Medical Association, DR.. Koren-
cheVsky urges that from seven to ten
American hospitals start a concerted
program of administering hormones and
vitamins. If this is done, he says, some
conclusions sufficient to warrant the
practical application of these substances
might be expected In one or two years
Reports Shortage Of Farmhands