AMERICA DAY BY DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 163, 13 July 1925, Page 12

AMERICA DAY BY DAY.

GLAND THEORY FLOUTED. REJUVENATION NOT POSSIBLE. CURES BY "WITCHCRAFT." (From Our Special Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, June 1. Proof of the statement made by the world-renowned showman, P. T. Barnum, that a sucker was born every minute, is daily afforded in the United States by the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent weekly by credulous individuals who vainly believe that rejuvenation is possible among humanity, and whenever a new exponent of the theory opens ofliceg in any of the great American cities his quarters are bombarded with men and women seeking to be converted into dashing maidens and youths full of yigour.

Any fond hopes that the fountain of youth lay undiscovered in the parathyroid gland of some African ape or fleet mountain goat received a setback when Dr. J. B. Collip, of Edmonton, Canada, told- .the American Medical Association Convention' at Atlantic City, New' Jersey, that such beliefs amounted to so much bunkum.

Dr. Collip revealed, however, that extensive experiments have produced reason to believe glands may be developed as an efficacious relief for epilepsy and similar ailments originating in improper elements in the blood.

Dr. Ross P. Carney, of Davenport. lowa, one of the surgeons , travelling with the Inter-State Post Graduate Clinic, while in Montreal, said: "Rejuvenation by glands or blood transfusion is all bunk. There is no such thing.possible. It is propaganda."

He said "heart disease eeems to be the .big thing," and added that the death rate is increasing, and in the United States there is a greater number of victims than from any other disease. '"People must be educated as to bow to live and eat and control themBelves," he declared.

At the American Medical Association Convention Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of the Stanford University, read a paper to the delegates in which he eaid advances in medicine, particularly serum treatments' and isolation of germs, are lengthening human life, perfecting human development and increasing human energy and productive power. Extirpating Freak Cures. Dr. Wilbur also told of the educational campaign being conducted to extirpate from public belief superstitious confidence in some of the so-called cures by witchcraft, conjuring and tomtoms.

X-ray is being used successfully in the treatment of whooping cough; infants can be cured of rickete by feeding them with certain foods treated by sun or X-rays, and scarlet fever can be prevented and cured by a new anti-toxin, speakers told the American Medical Association Convention.

Dr. Lawrence W. Smith, of Boston, said that X-ray can shorten the duration and lessen the severity of whooping cough. Rickets is due to a lack of a vitamin which can be supplied by natural or artificial means, said Dr. Alfred F. Herfs, of New York City. Dr. W. S. Park, of New York told 'of the new scarlet fever anti-toxin.

Turning from medicine to another branch of science Americans- Lave just been told of a discovery in the astronomical world, when casually interested in a new telescope, which, he sighted at the sun in an optical and telescope shop, Mr. David Todd, former professor of astronomy at Amherst College, saw four large sun spots: in New York. Three of them, the professor said, were about the ■ size of the cc fth. They were surrounded by many smaller ones ranging up to 1000 miles in diameter.

The spots,. Professor Todd stated, indicated great solar activity, and would in all probability be accompanied by the usual phenomena. Professor Todd eaid the spots would probably affect transmission over telegraph lines by causing irregularity of electrical impulses, over the wires. He also anticipated Auroral displays.

"The sun has shown little activity the past two years,"' said Professor Todd. "New groups of spots may appear at any time. Reading them should prove interesting to astronomers."

Professor Todd is preparing to lead a group of astronomers to East" Africa to study a total eclipse of the sun visible in sections of Madagascar on January 14, 1026. He already had witnessed 11 total eclipses of the suii and hopes to live to see the total eclipse in 1937 visible off the Pacific coast and in Mexico and Central America. Hearse in Bandit Hunt. Bank Tobbing does not pay with so many modern weapons at the command of the police and banks, as two men who participated in a sensational robbery of the Cottage Grove State Bank at Dcs Mxnnes have learned.

After a flight of more than 100 miles in an automobile following the holdup, the men were captured near Avenue City, in Missouri, north of St. Joseph, but two of their companions escaped.

Frank Varria, 24, of Kansas City, shot in "the arm, and an inidentifled man, shot in the head, were placed in custody at St. Joseph. They were wounded when St. Joseph officers engaged tiem in a gun fight.

Radio, telegraph and telephone spread the news, and an aeroplane and posses joined in the chase, which had all the earmarks of the old-time American movie.

Speeding down the highway near Avenue City, the quartette ran into an ambush laid by four St. Joseph policemen. In a burst of speed the robbers' car swung_ round, a curve and turned over. Two of ,the men were caught'and the others escaped into: the woods.

ToigiV& H a.fitting climax to the chase, an undertaker with his hearse and a minister were in it at the finish. The hearse, returning "from a cemetery, had joined in-the • pursuit - and was ready to accommodate the wounded bank robbers. The loot was recovered.

Woman Plans Town. Now that women have taken to city building, Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McICormick, business genius among the gentle sex of the Rockefeller line, plans not to be outdone for she has under way what is intended by her-to be one of. the world's finest communities to P r ?YJdeV a fashionable, •stamping ground •«M\f?6meof the world's richest residents —a new Wisconsin Lake City to serve §• a. suburb of Chicago.

Mrs. Rockefeller MeCormick's as yet unnamed town is going to differ from the "Mariemont."' which another lady city builder. Mrs. Mary M. Emery, is constructing on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her town is being built for the very wealthy; Mrs. Emery's for the moderately circumstanced. Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick is building a city to be a picture of architectural perfection. It lies on Lake Michigan, just over the Wisconsin line, but near enough to Chicago for chauffeur-attended commutors to get down to their work before noon! The entire lake front of tho community is retained by the town, with no riparian rights to be disposed of to property owners at any price. There will be a town golf course, model playgrounds for children, ample school facilities. With a woman's eye for beauty Mrs. McCormick has seen to it that no architectural . monstrosities can' be constructed along the winding wooded streets of her town. If property owners agree to conform to the city's architectural scheme, they will be permitted to build; otherwise not. A definite scheme of architecture will apply as well to the business section as to the residence district. It is expected that the downtown section will be of the half-timbered old English style of architecture and any prospective shop owner will be required to conform to the community plan when he builds.

Jumping into the circle of city builders is no feat at all for one of the most successful of the Rockefellers. Since her former husband, Harold McCormick,'decided to wed Oanna Walska, Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick has given play to that business genius which is hers probably as an inheritance from her famous father, John D. snr.

At any rate her real estate ventures as silent partner in the realty firm she established a few short years ago now are. said to amount to 100.000,000 dol. As the leading woman realtor of the world, a "stab"' at city building is not much of a venture after all.