Evening star., 1951-09-28
Automatic Regulations
In Eoting and Drinking
Johns Hopkins Psychologists
Report on Experiments
By Thomos R. Henry

By Thomas R. Henry
There are automatic regulators Of
eating and drinking.
This is being demonstrated by an
electric "drinkometer, now being de-
veloped at Johns Hopkins University. It
Is the invention Of two psychologists.
Drs. j. Harry Hill and Eliot Stellar, who
are trying to determine the nature Ct
the basic drives in animals. The device
records every lap Of q drinking animals
tongue.
It makes 1t possible for the scientists
to find out how much, when and how
fast an animal drinks. Drs. Hill and
Stellar, have found, for example, that
rats drink water at steady rate of six
or seven laps second, regardless Of
how long they have been deprived of
water, or how long they have been drink
ing Out Of a 24-hour day, the animals
spend only about 20 minutes quenching
their thirst.
Animals, DR.. Stellar explains, drink
amounts Of water proportional to their
body needs. They tend to over-estimate
these needs somewhat, but their bodies
can easily dispose of the excess. The
same holds true for other body require
ments.
Tests Made With Sugar.
Rats. for example, need a lot of sugar
to stay healthy. When the researchers
mixed sugar with the rats water they
found that an animal usually took very
close to the amount its body required.
When a vitamin solution was offered
the rat accepted only the very small
amounts it needed.
The theory evolved is that each sub
stance, such as salt or sugar, sets of a
different mechanism which regulates
hunger or thirst. When the rat has
drunk as much water as it needs the
mechanism shuts off and the animal
stops drinking. 1.
Humans also. it is stressed, have SINH
lar mechaniSmS but they often are COM
plicated by emotion and learning. factors
which are present but not highly devel-
oped in the rat. Despite these compli-
cations, says DR.. Stellar, men and women
do fair job of satisfying their bodily
requirements and manage to keep their
intake of water at about the same level
as the amount constantly lost through
perspiration and other causes.
The Johns Hopkins researchers are
interested in determining why the auto
matte regulators are sometimes badly
upset.
Contemporaneou with the crest OF
Inca civilization in Peru and with the
high Maya cultures in Mexico there
existed an hitherto almost unknown
civilization of sort, in Venezuela.
The country apparently was a cross
roads between the two great culture
centers Of the New World before Colum-
bus The relatively high development
of its people is revealed from study Of
more than 1000 artifacts-mostly frag-
ments of pottery and stone tools-just
received by the Smithsonian Institution
from Col. Berkeley r. Lewis, member OF
q wartime military mission in Venezuela.
These represent not one. but variety.
Of cultures. Some Of these, although
probably in decline. were dourishing
when the first white explorers came.
The Lewis collection includes arti-
facts from sites along the Orinoco. the
Venezuelan north coast, the shores Of
Lake Valencia, and various Andean re-
gions. In much of the dry, uncultivated
land large amounts of pottery are found
suggesting aboriginal village sites. OF
some size, whose people carried on ex-
tensive irrigation.
Relatively little is known about the
ancient Venezuelans. Presumably their
blood is represented among the present
Indians Of the country. Their artifacts
show that they evidently were quite an
energetic and artistic people with COM
plex society, who made contacts in every
direction and were quick to grasp new
ideas. Many Of the culture traits were
unique.
Bat God Worshipped.
A bat god seems to have played =
prominent part in their lives. The figure
appears, highly conventionalized. in
their pottery, stone carving and shell
work
Despite all their contacts with the
outside world. the ancient VenezuelanS
themselves did not develop anything ap-
preaching the high civilization Of the
Mayas whose great temple cities, long
since buried under spreading jungle, are
among the wonders Of the world.
There are no massive stone ruins in
Venezuela-or they have not been dis
covered. There are limited traces Of
actual dwellings. Apparently these In
dians lived. as was also the case with
the Mayas, in quite fragile huts. These
would disappear in a few years after
they we're abandoned. The great bat
god, unlike his contemporary gods in
Yucatan, did not ask to be worshipped
in elaborate temples. Many of the
artifacts collected, however, appear to
have been ceremonial objects associated
with the worship of this weird diety.
Figures were finely carved and pottery
painted with elaborate designs.