PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 August 1924, Page 5

PROGRESS IN SCIENCE.

NEW THEORIES ADVANCED. DIET’S EFFECT ON HEALTH. GATHERING IN CANADA. By Telegrapn.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Aug. 12, 10.55 p.m. Ottawa, Aug. 11. A telegram from Toronto says an interesting pronouncement in the discussion of the sectional sessions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science wfts that of Professor Herbert Evans, of the University. of California, in which he claimed the discovery of a mysterious component of diet, which was essential for the performance of the reproductive function. Profeseor Evans, reporting on researches in a symposium on vitamines, said that synthetic food mixtures, containing adequate amounts of sugar, fat, salts and previously known vitamines, will produce normal growth and apparent health in rodents, but they lead to the occurrence of sterility when the vitamine is prevalent in leaves, grains and meats. “Sterility is a specific dietary disease, which may be prevented or cured by certain natural foodstuffs, but is unaffected by others,” declared Porfessor Evans. Dr. E. Mellandy (London) claimed that phosphates, long considered to be the controlling and necessary factor for the proper growth of bone, are really only of secondary value. He said he performed experiments on this by varying ’.he diet of dogs. Added interest was given to the activities of the world famous scientists when the international mathematical congress, gathering for the first time on this side of the Atlantic, opened its annual session. The congress at its first meeting recognised the work of Canadian men of science by choosing Dr. C. J. Field, of Toronto University, as president for the year. A further honour was bestowed on Canada by the selection of Professor J. L. Synge, of Toronto, and Professor L. V. King, of the McGill University, Montreal, as secretaries.