Evening star., 1951-02-19
Ice-ShelIed Planet Given
Credit for Solar Comets
Pluto Kicked Them Into System,
Chicago Astronomer Reports
By Thomos R. Henry

The little ice-shelled planet Pluto.
sweeping around the sun in great circle
with a radius of about 37 billion miles,
kicked the comets into the solar system.
This conclusion is reported by DR..
Gerard p. Kuiper, professor Of astronomy
at the University of Chicago, In the cur
rent journal Of the National Academy
of Sciences.
There now is every indication, DR..
Kuiper says, that comets originated
something more than billion years
ago on the extreme fringes of the solar
system, at about the same distance from
the sun as the present orbit of Pluto.
This assumption is necessary, he be-
lieves. to account for their composition,
a good part of which is Of ice particles.
These must have coalesced where the
temperature could not have been much
more than or 10 degrees above abb
solute zero-about 460 minus fahren-
heit.
At about the same time. he explains.
Pluto itself was formed. The enormous
gravitational pull 1t exercised on the
smaller bodies tends to pull them into
orbits, and some whose orbits pass close
to the planet Neptune are pulled further
inside the solar system. Then this pull
is continued by other planets until the
comets are brought quite close to the
sun.
Patrol Continues.
The majority. however, continue to
patrol everlastingly the solar systems
outermost borders and never will come
close enough to be observed
DR.. Kuiper discusses the probable
mode of origin of the solar system as o
whole. The probability of the forma-
ton OF other solar systems with habitable
planets was very small, he calculates.
There hardly can be any more than a
billion such possible or probable abodes
of life in the whole Milky Way galaxy,
he declares.
Anti-histamine drugs, which are sup
posed to stop colds and of which enor-
nous numbers now are being sold over
drug store counters, have a remarkable
tendency to cause fatal commissions in
young children.
This has been reported to the Amer
lean Medical Association by Drs. j. B.
Wyngaarden and M. H. Sewers after
intensive study of the toxic effects Of
the drugs at the University of Michigan
Medical School. On the whole, they
found, while bad side effects are fire.
quent they are very seldom serious, so
as to make the drugs much of a danger
to the public.
Most striking. the investigators re-
port. Is the susceptibility of children
under two years of age to go into con-
vulsions after taking the drug. Eight
fatal cases had been listed at the time
the report was made. Only two cases
did not result in death.
Severe Depressions Noted
With adults the most serious effects
appear to be just the opposite of those
with children-very severe depressions.
These also are fatal occasionally, al
though by no means so frequently.
The two University of Michigan scien-
lists report series Of experiments with
mice, rabbits. guinea pigs, dogs and cats.
The animals showed little effect. even
with severe overdosing. With monkeys
however, there appeared both the con-
vulSive action noted in children and the
depression of the central nervous sys-
tenn observed In human adults. Early
death might result. It was possible to
treat the monkeys successfully for both
conditions, but treatments Of children
have not proved satisfactory.
At the worst, it is emphasized, severe
reactions will be quite rare and depend
to a considerable degree on individual
idiosyncracies. They found. however. a
wide variety of bad side reactions
against which family physicians should
be on guard.