SCIENCE PROGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 7

SCIENCE PROGRESS.

TRANSPARENT TISSUE. NEW RAY DISCOVERED. STUDY O<F ENDOCRINE GLANDS. (From Our Onn Correspondent.) SAN" FRANCISCO, April 10. Diagnosis in the case of patients suffering from miscellaneous ailments will .be made more positive by an announceI ment just made in San Frar.ciseo whereiby science has discovered a new ray ■to pierce the body,- and in this announcement it is mentioned that for yea?* surgeons and scientists have 'been working to discover all the secrets of animal life. Dissection and vivisection disclosed certain principles, and tl>e X-ray added .an opportunity of studying; internal con- ! ditions without the use of the knife. j Professor A. Naeff, of Apsldoorn, Tht I Netherlands, has come to Sa.w Francisco now with a new discovery, and he is able by. a chemical process to make 'living tissues transparent and thus enj aible the surgeon and the biologist t» .study anatomy in the minutest- detail 'and without the use of dissecting instruments. Professor Naeff takes a rabbit's I ear, a - calf's leg,. or any' part of the I human-body, and-'by placing it in his ; chemical solution renders it so trans- | parent 'that every nerve and blood veeßel j may be traced without difficulty. He I had with him in San Francisco about one hundred specimens, and gave his secret to universities, medical colleges and academies of science. The scope of j his work, he said, was limited only by j the number of specimens he had been [able to obtain. I In looking at oiie of his specimens it [was possible to see the density of the I bone, the character of the flesh, the j condition and the number of the nerves and blood vessels! Until his discovery ' has been followed up by investigations and comparisons it is impossible to say how far it wil reach. Professor Naeff believes it will add greatly to the medical and- anatomical knowledge now in existence. It is even possible that diseases affecting the nerves, circulatory system and bone tissues may ibe studied more closely land systematically than has ever been, done 'before. (Professor Naeff distributed his specimens among institutions of learning; and his chemical process is to be carried further by other scientific men. He is said to have the only process by which it is possible to study every phase of animal organism without breaking down or tearing a single tissue. Ductless Glands Next. Science is making such headway in the s;tudy of the ductless glands tihat it is believed control of these glands will be the next achievement, Professor A. Biedl, of Prague', Czechoslovakia, eminent ; specialist on the endocrine system, told the convention of the American Con- : gress on Internal Medicine, assembled in St. Louis a few days ago. iJlost important to science, Professor \ Biedl asserted, is the thyroid gland, to _ whose over-secretion or under-secretion the world owes dwarfs, giants, fat monL strosities and living skeletons. It is '. the controller of body metabolism, bone ; growth and body proportions, he added. 1 Goitre is an affliction of the thyroid I gland, and Professor Biedl said that I when Botticelli emphasised the characters of his canvases by* long, slender arms, hands and fingers, he unconsciously,, was betraying a condition of ! goitre among Florentine women of the. time. At another sess:on of tlie Medical Gongress at St. Louis, hay fever or asthma patients, who are at a loss to explain ! the regular recurrence of their ailments, were notified that they may find that ! the source of their troubles lies in a i Panama hat, a watermelon, duck , feathers, gasoline, or a host of other articles not commonly regarded as disease carriers. • In explaining how the sensitiveness 1 which produces such ailments varies ■ with parsons, Dr. W. W. Duke, of Kan•j;sas City. Missouri, enumerated many I possible sources of irritation, and ad- '• .vised physicians to experiment with the I patient 'afflicted until he discovered the ; I toxin causing the reaction. . J "One of the most interesting and ' j peculiar cases of the sort which I have t ' encountered," ho said, "was a patient ; sensitive to the 'blue rays of light, '' and who upon exposure to summer suni light for one-half minute, would not only , ( have » violent skin reaction, iiianiI 1 fested by redness of the skin and interne itching. but when a sufficient area was exposed, would have chills, fever, and a serious general illness." diphtheria Cure. American doctors have been greatly interested in a vaccine against diphtheria, invented by Dr. Jules Renault and Dr. Pierre Eaul Levy, a vaccine which its originators declare makes epidemics of that' dLsease practically impossible, according to the results cf their experiments communicated to tluAcademy of Medicine in Paris. The vaccine, which is called "T plus .A" and is injected subeutaneously, is ? hyper-neutralised and causes little in- :' convenience. Three hundred children . treated with it were found to ba ccm--5 pletely immunised after three injections, j The inventors believe even batter re--2 suits can <be attained, and were reported to be couiliuing their experiments, 'mfc j I all the Academicians agreed that the .'vaccine way. ;i great improvement over . thp uni-toxin treatment. 1 .Just at the present juncture there is ,ja veritable diphtheria epidemic raging in i tin , I'nited States, and the American ,' doctors are intensely anxious to have ■ access to the new vaccine in order to i ;' abate tiic present outbreak of diph« > I tlieria in the country. ;j A chemical discovery, one of ths most ■ i important of the twentieth century, hae ■ j :il?o just been made at the fixed nitro-. gen research laboratory at Washington, ■I I'rciessor Arthur B. Lamb, cf Harvard, ! announced at Boston. It is that of a. j now catalyst which will bring about the j permanent union of hydrogen and nitriI gen atoms, and will yield 14 per cent iof ammonia. Professor Lamb said. j Two g''eat benefits will be derived. j The I'nited States, it is claimed, will ! have at its command an explosive t*vic> •as effective as that discovered by the I Germans a few months before the \\ orld War, and American farmers will ' have the use of a much cheaper and ! more effective fertiliser. ilal-cte-mar, uu ailment which ocean travellers have feared for ages, is liable ;to be cured, judging by another announcement in medical circles, and it is ' confidently believed that ocean liners ; may carry oxygen tanks as unfailingly las lifebelts, followirg the statement of i Professor Raphael Dubois, of the j Physiological Laboratory at Tamaris- | sur-Mer. The professor said a sniff or j two of oxygen cures both seasicknefS and mountain sickness. A \ ~ A