Evening star., 1954-12-28
By Thomas R. Henry
sfor sioff Correspondent

49,
BERKELEY, Calf, Dec. 2S.
A 50-fold increase in extraction
of growth hormone from the
anterior pituitary gland, the
finding of hitherto unknown ef-
fects Of this potent body chemi-
cal. and a possible relation be-
tween it and various types Of
cancer were announced before
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science here to-
day by DR.. Choh Hao Ii, pro-
fessor of biochemistry at the
University Of California. The
association is holding its week
long winter meeting here.
DR.. Ii was one Of the group
which originally isolated the
hormore 10 years ago. Then,
after years of effort, it was pos
sible to extract only two milli-
grams from a centigram of pitui-
tary tissue. Now this has been
raised to more than a gram.
The substance is the same, and
can be used interchangably,
throughout the animal kingdom.
The studies have shown. DR..
Ii said, that apparently only a
part of the extremely complex
Molecule is concerned directly
with growth. Even more i'm
portant, it is essential for the
synthesis of proteins. the nitro
gen-containing substances which
are the bricks of muscles and
glands without it growth runs to
fat. In some fashion it causes
the burning of this fat to build
proteins.
1t also plays a major part in
bone formation and probably in
causing diabetes.
It promotes the growth and
also may play some part in
starting malignant tumors. Ex-
periments with mouse tumors
show, however, that it may also
have a curative role. One of
the most powerful growth in
hibitors known is another pitui-
tary hormone. ACTH. When
this is given in sufficient
amounts to stop cancer growth,
however, it stops all other
growth and the mice die.
When the two hormones are
given together, however. a ball
ance is achieved. In one type
of mouse cancer all treated in
this way survived and the aver
age tumor size was reduced to
half a gram, compared to six
grams in the untreated controls.
Most of the controls eventually
died of the growth. All treated
with ACTH alone died.
Expansion Of Universe.
The universe Is expanding in
ell directions.
The millions of vast star ag-
gregations-of which the 100
billion-star Milky Way galaxy is
a part-all are flying away from
each other at speeds which in
crease in direct proportion to
their distances apart.
The new basic speed of ex-
pansion, and a new fundamental
yardstick of Creation, is approx
imateiy 108 miles per second per
million parsecs. or the distance
traversed by light at velocity
of 1856 miles per second in 8
million years. Thus to an OBJ
server on earth (thiS planet
being considered stationary an
object 8 million light years away
appears to be moving outward
at a speed of 108 miles a second
and an object million light
years away to be moving 216
miles a second, and so on.
Presumably the most distant
oDJect Wnlcn IL mas Deen possible
to oberve with the 200-inch
Mount Palomar telescope is NOV
ing outward at $4,000 miles
second. indicating a distance of
approximately 160 billion light
years.
All this indicates that astro-
nomically measurable space is
from three to four times greater
than hitherto assumed.
These findings were reported
to the association by DR.. Allan
r. Sandage of the Mount
Wilson and Mount Palomar
observatories and are based
on results of a 20-year research