Evening star., 1950-12-01
Eorth's Population Rise
Worries Experts Here
Some Peoples Show Signs
Of Doubling in Is Years
By Thomos R. Henry


The earth's human population is sex
ploding" with lower death rates and
higher birth rates.
This is the warning Of the Population
Reference Bureau here, whose director,
DR.. Guy Irving Burch, cites what the
bureau considers alarming figures OF
the last few years.
Ceylon's birth rate now is over 40 per
thousand. It has increased from 26 per
thousand in 20 years. This rate of
increase will double the population In
26 years.
Puerto Rico's birth rate essentially
has doubled in 20 years. The death rate
has been cut more than rs per cent. The
population will double In 25 years at this
rate.
Japan, DR.. Burch says. is striking
example despite the devastating effects
of the war. In 1853 the population was
about 27 million. It had remained
stationary for 300 years. At the start
Of World War II there had been an
increase to SO million. But, says the
report, Sin the few years that the
United States has occupied Japan we
have lowered the prewar death rate of
17.2 per thousand to 11.4. The popula-
ton has recently been increasing at a
rate which would double her already
dense population in only 80 years. This
is more than twice as fast as the increase
for the world as whole"
Islands Death Rate Halved.
At the end of the war the United
States undertook the custodianship Of
the Micronesian Islands. 1t has cut the
death rate in half, while the present
birth rate is sufficient to double the
population in 33 years.
Formosa and Korea offer special prob
lens, DR.. Burch declares. Formosa has
a birth rate Of about 40 per thousand.
The population nearly has doubled in
the last 35 years. There is every indica-
tion that 1t will double again in a like
period.
The present population of Korea is
between 30 million and 81 million. De-
spite the temporary setback of the war,
1t Is estimated, 1t Is due to reach close
to 100 million in the next century.
In. the Near East the lowest birth
rate Is that of Turkey. Still, the popu-
lation is expected to increase about 70
per cent in the next 35 years. Egypts
present birth rate, despite an excep-
tionally high death rate, is expected to
double her population in about 20 years.
"The best estimates" DR.. Burch be-
lieves, "are that India's population in
creased so million in the decade be-
tween 1881 and 1941. If the death rate
could be lowered to the level of that
of the United States, India could fill
five earths as full as ours is today in q
single century,
A fat-producing drug which more
than doubles the normal weight Of mice
in a year is being investigated at the
Army Medical Center here.
This has been reported recently
through the American Physiological So
ciety by Samuel H. Waxler and George
Bresher.
The curious effect first appeared
when animals were given, for other
purposes. doses of the drug just suffi-
cient to kill most of them. A few sur
vived and Immediately began to take
on fat. Now the drug has been admin
istered In smaller amounts by injection
and the results studied for year.
Weight Raise Continues.
Throughout this whole period, after
an initial dose, the creatures contin-
ued to take on weight, according to the
report. Controlled animals achieved a
maximum weight Of about 81 grams.
Males given the drug weighed from so
to 80 grams and and females so to go.
One male reached 80 grams, but this
may have been pathological case
The weight increase was fairly steady
over the entire period. Starvation ex-
periments then were started. The treated
animals were able to go without food
for about two weeks. The controls be-
gan to die in less than a week.
At the end of the long starvation
period the fat mice weighed about as
much as they would have weighed nor
mally without the drug. In other words,
all the surplus fat had been consumed
by the body in feeding itself. The other
animals who survived also reached their
normal weights in few weeks.
Throughout the experiment, the Army
investigators report, the mice given the
drug showed better appetites than the
controls, although there were remis-
sions of appetite lasting 10 days or
more.