BURNS IN A MINUTE

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19545, 6 April 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

BURNS IN A MINUTE

Nature gets some funny Ideas. As Ss result there are two fellow-studen'ts at the University of 'California who are suffering in weird ways. One is turning to stone. The other is hyper-, photo-sensitive. Which • does not mean that he Is likely 'to go mad and bite somebody, hut simply that he cannot live in the sunlight. If. he stayed on Bondi beach for a quarter of an hour he would be like a halfcooked steak. The last shall be first. He is Robert J. West, and in the University of California he has a special room with red window-glass. There he works for his honors like an honest young devil in an orthodox hell. If he steps into the sunlight unprotected, he Itches at once; and in three minutes a red swelling appears on his skin. No part of his body is immune. There is nothing in the world the matter with him as far as his health is concerned. He is a pleasant, upstanding, frank, young man, a good student, w'holly concentrated on taking a course of medicine. But he is so sensitive that the sun burns him Immediately it contacts with his skin.

Doctors Tried In Vain.

Doctors have tried in vain, to find out why. It is not due to heredity, not to, personal metabolism, which is the chemical proportion of the body's composition. A couple of American doctors have tried covering young West with a heavy coat of tan, applied by means of an electric lamp. This worked to a small degree. But it drily means that West burns in fifteen minutes instead of three. So sensitive is his skin that even this coating is insufficient. ' A protracted interest is taken in this ’ i young man because he is more rare than quintuplets. There are only five people like him in existence. Two arc in Trance, one in Germany, and the other one In America. Experiments ' have been tried on him with light filters of kinds. The red filter

Boy Who Cannot Stand Sunlight. Another Who Is Turning to Stone!

i was found to protect him best, and to l minimise whatever light activated chemical It is in the skin that causes him to he so.sunburned. The result is the red window which tones him to the infernal shade abovementioned. And- when he goes abroad he has to be protected similarly by a special filter. There does not seem any possibility of curing him; and when he takes his degree, his surgery will be a trial on nervous patients, with Its suggestive glow. Turning to Stone. It must be something in the air In California, for another boy in the same university is turning to stone I His story came to light when the 60-year-old night-watchman of the seat of learning was charged with operating an illegal still. In his defence, he said he needed -money to help his son. "My boy, Albert, has a strange disease,” he told the judge. ‘fHe is 19., His body is slowly turning to stone, and doctors say that they can do.nothing for him. He is a brilliant boy, studying medicine at the university. I couldn’t make enough money , to keep him at his studies —so I set up this still and made whisky." Albert hopes that when he takes his degree he will he able to find a cure for his own trouble, which seems to be due to metabolism. The-theory is that his system cannot eliminate the calcium which enters it, nor direct it in the right way. He had managed to keep his secret for six and a half years, and only immediate members of the family, Ihe doctors at the 'University Hospital, and at the Cowell Memorial Hospital, where he is being treated, knew.

. After studying his case, specialists said he was ‘turning lo calcium carbonate, the same material as limestone is made of. As almost every food con-* tains a percentage of calcium, it is impossible to treat -him by diet; and the Cowell Memorial doctors are trying to find some other way just now.