“BOTTLED” SUNSHINE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 43, 18 January 1935, Page 4

“BOTTLED” SUNSHINE

LIGHT FROM BRAIN TISSUE. A visible demonstration that light emanates from the brains of animals, or, an the demonstrator, Dr. George W. Grile, said that the “sun shines again in the protoplasm of animals,” was given in a laboratory of the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic, says the New York correspondent of tiie London Times. In the pitch darkness of the room brain tissue was seen t,o 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 Crile’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 ill their plant food. Through the use of delicate instruments devised by some of these assistants—including a galvanometer capable of measuring one quadrilliontli of an ampere—he lias established that radiations are produced in protoplasm in different wave-lengths. According to Dr Tellies 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 a range from 8000 to 12,000 Angstrom units. (An Angstrom unit is one-hnndred-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 shown kvas 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 produced by anaesthetics is taken to indicate that certain radiations of in-fra-red or ultra-violet type are necessary for the existence of a state of consciousness. Alcohol in small amounts increased radiation, but in large amounts it decreased it. Tliryoxin from thyroid gland and adrenalin from the adrenals increased radiation. A study of 1000 animals, Dr Grile said, had" fully justified the assumptions about the size of their thyroid and adrenal glands from the character of their behaviour. Thus, wliero there was need for a quick use of energy, as ill the lion and tiger, the adrenal sympathetic system was most complex; the thyroid gland Was larger than the adrenal glands in animals’ such as man, wliero 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, such as the alligator and crocodile.