NEW DISCOVERIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18704, 2 August 1932, Page 10

NEW DISCOVERIES.

EVIDENCE FROM SURGERY. AN AMERICAN’S WORK. DR. J. T. IRVING RETURNS. ' Two modern additions to medical knowledge' which had resulted from evidence that had arisen out of surgical practice were mentioned to The ■Wellington Dominion by Dr J. T. Irving of Bristol, England, who arrived by the Ruahine. The first concerned the functioning of the pituitary gland, a gland situated at the front of the head, and the second had to do with an Internal secretion which prevented the system from becoming anaemic. Dr Harvey Cushing, a distinguished American surgeon, was mainly responsible for the first, said Dr Irving. Cushing had gone a great deal of brain surgery and a lot of work on the pituitary, in which he had observed various changes taking place in particular patients. Cushing had managed to correlate those various changes with conditions of the patient he observed before operating. Tumours of one kind and another in the pituitary could result in abnormalities In growth _ or organs. This work, said Dr Irving, -was outstanding, although it had been said that Cushing's mortality rate was high. , ~ , The other development of medical knowledge was one that could not -have taken place but for modern surK erv having enabled radical changes -to lie made to certain organs m major operations. As a result of this surgeons dealing with patients sufTerin» from certain diseases had gone to the length of removing small or large portions of the stomach, according to [he requirements of 'the case. Throug this it had been found that if more than a certain amount of the stomach were removed the patient became anaemic, and further, that this was XTo itie fact that celts had removed which made an acid lutely essential to the maintenance ol a nop-anaemic condition. Animal and Vegetable Kingdom. Although science has been able to 'manufacture small Piecesofcodoiaal ■stuff having many of the .propertie■of living material, it has not yet sum ceeded, and perhaps never wll ® oeed, in producing anything with the real spark of organic life, continued Dr Irving. But no matter how difficult that last enterprise may be, the processes of life in animals and plants seem in some respects » b omtan to the same terms, so that uitimate lv the big problem may be m 0 simply expressible. The animal and -vegetable kingdoms are being t together by an increasing number 01 analogies of identities, of which one of the most recent, a rather invo one, was explained by Dr Irving. Dr Irving spoke in particular of the explanations which had been advanced to account for the production of lactic acid, when a muscle of the bodv contracted. The occurrence of the phenomenon was first shown n 1907, and had been someth n 0 of <■ puzzle for a long time. But it had been demonstrated now that the lactic acid- was formed by a process from ■the .glycogen stored in the muscle. -Glycogen was a substance prod ,’Yp‘: 1 In the body from sugar an cl s ored in the muscles. A sort °f halanc was kept, so that after a bout of exe - ci=e in which glycogen was used up af, the muscles, further glycogen would circulate to restore the proportions The peculiar fact, said Dr. Irving, was that the lactic acid was proeduced from the glycogen In a contracting muscle by a rather c °™. pl " cated process, involving enzyme action and that the whole process, involving the breaking down of the substances in the -muscle, was almost identical with that of the 'breaking down of veast. Practically the only difference was that in one case the end result was lactic acid and in the other alcohol. Curious Coincidences. It was a .curious coincidence of the kind that, was sometimes met with in the consideration of animal and vegetable processes. Another example or it was furnished by the red pigment ■of the blood, haemoglobin, and the ■green pigment in the leaves of plants, -chlorophyll. Haemoglobin and chlorophyll were of precisely the same 'composition, although their functions in the different media and under different circumstances were not tne same. Chlorophyll acted in a certain way under the action of sunlight to produce carbon for the plant, while haemoglobin combined in a loose sort •of way with oxygen in the 'lungs and took the oxygen all over the body in -the blood-stream. But haemoglobin and chlorophyll were the same substance. . , . . Identities of this kind established between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, said Dr. Irving, corresponded in general idea with that behind the work of the Indian scientist, Bose, who had claimed that plants, like animals, had feelings. Bose claimed to -have found -minute nerves in plants and to have observed plants registcring pain." Dr. Irving Is a son of Dr Irving, of Christchurch, and was educated at. ■Christ’s College. Ho left New Zealand in 1920, and went to Cains College Cambridge, where lie remained for six vears, pursuing medical and scientific studies. He took his IT.A. in 1920 with a double first in science, and stayed on for three more years doing •research work in bio-chemistry. In 1926 he went to Oxford with a Belt Fellowship, and did further research work In his own special field. Ho re- • signed the fellowship in 1928, and went to Guy’s Hospital, London, taking a medical course. He took his M'D. at CaiuTtrldge. and in 1927 gained the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D.