SHINING BRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1935, Page 7

SHINING BRAINS

RADIATION TESTS

SUN'S LIGHT REBORN

A visible demonstration that light emanates from the brains of animals, or, as the demonstrator, Dr. George VT. Crile, said, that the "sun shines again in the protoplasm of animals," was given, in a laboratory of the Cleveland (Ohio)' Clinic, says the New Yorkcorrespondent of the London "Times." In the pitch darkness of the room brain tissue was seen to 'give forth a faint greenish glow, which grew stronger after a little time. When a flask containing the tissue was shaken, the tissue became more luminous still. In Dr. Crilo's view, the experiments which he and a group of assistants have been making prove'that the,energy of animals is supplied by re-radiation 'of solar energy ingested in their plant food. ' Through the use-of delicate instruments' devised -- by . some of those assistants—including' a galvanometer capable of measuring one quadrillionth of an ampere—lie has established that radiations are produced in. protoplasm in different wave-lengths. According to Dr. Telkes, one of Dr. Crile's collaborators, the type of radiation emitted by the brain tissue in a recent demonstration includes, in addition to visible light, Infra-red radiations of * range from 8000 to 12,000 Angstrom units. (An Angstrom unit is one-hundred-millionth of a centimetre.) The tissue likewise gives off shorter radiations. in the range of the ultraviolet. . ■ . ' By the addition of various chemicals, the luminescence of the , tissue ghown was increased or decreased •at will. Thus there was given an insight into the action of certain drugs on the human system. All drugs that decreased radiation or stopped it altogether are physiologically poisonous. The decrease of .radiation ~( p roduced -by anaesthetics is taken' to indicate that certain ladiations of infra-red or ultraviolet type are necessary for . tha existence of a state of consciousness. .Alcohol in small amounts increased I radiation, but in largo amounts it.'decreased it. Thryoxin from thyroid gland-and adrenalin from the adrenals I increased radiation. , •, A study of 1000 animals, Dr. Crile ! said, had fully justified the assumptions about the size of their thyroid .and adrenal glands from the character. of their behaviour. Thus,.where there was need for a quick uso of energy, as in the lion and tiger, the adrenal sympathetic system was most complex; th« thyroid gland was larger than th© adrenal glands in animals such as .man, where there is a demand for sustained energy over long periods of time. Both the thyroid and adrenal glands were small in animals of sluggish habit, sack ias the alligator and crocodile.