New Discovery Forcing Maturity.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXVI, Issue 3454, 5 November 1915, Page 4

New Discovery Forcing Maturity.

• A 'great war naturally results in a scarcity of food-stuffs and a tremendous decrease in the male population of the world. .With millions of men engaged in battle whose usual avocation is farming and food production, the food problem naturally becomes a serious one. A chain.is as strong as its weakest link, and a nation is as formidable as its food supply. This being the case it is interesting to note the scientific discovery recently made by , Dr. Carey Pratt McCord, of Detroit, Mich. A well-known and highly respected pathologist. In a word, this eminent authority claims that he has discovered a food which eliminates youth or hastens maturity. By his method of feeding animals which have been born recently, and which, under ordinary conditions would not be ready for killing for. many months, may be made available within a few weeks. The same treatment applied to children also hastens maturity to quite a fabulous extent ; and it is claimed 1 that children who ordinarily would not be available for active service for ten or fifteen years, itfay by application, of this food-stuff be ready and fit to defend their country within a couple of years' treatment. Thus it will be seen that the supply of food and men may be augmented in a way hitherto only possible in fiction ; and its possibilities from a scientific standpoint are inestimable. The discovery hinges on a N little gland in the brain, known' as the pineal gland, and sometimes referred to as a "third eye." This organ is possessed of some remarkable qualities, and some ,believe it to be the seat of the boul. , For long enough scientists have been trying to ascertain exactly what the functions of this gland are. It is possessed alike I by animals and man, and until reI cently when Dr. McCord tried a ! series of experiments upon chickens and guinea pigs which resulted in his remarkable discovery, nothing had been gained. When Dr. McCord commenced his self-appointed task, he believed that ■. the administration of pineal gland would arrest development because the general belief was that the pineal gland controlled growth. Dr. McCord used 110 guinea pigs, 18 puppies, 14 adult dogs and 10 chicks in the course of his experiments. Hjs mode of proceedure was to feed very young animals with small quantities of fresh pineal glands from cattle, keeping careful records of the growth in size, weight, and the change in mentality and contrasting the results with those of other animals which otherwise lived under exactly the same conditions. The pineal glands were obtained partly from, calves, partly from three-year-old cattle and partly from the general .run of cattle from the abbatbirs. The preparation consisted in washing them clean from blood, stripping them of adherent tissue and grinding them to a line paste. As a result of his experiments the scientist is of opinion that "the minute quantities of pineal tissue from young animals to young animals stimulates rapid growth of the body, but not beyond tnormal size." Striking evidence of 'precocity of mental development was aIBO indisputably shown.