Evening Star Newspaper, April 26, 1931, Page 78

[ 6 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D, €, APRIL . 26, 1951 ' ’)Z-Rays to Make Giant Plants and Animals Dr. Arthur C. Pilisbury has conducted many interesting experiments on plant kife. BY ELEANOR EARLY. OBACCO plants grow three or four feet high and have sickly, ill-smelling blossoms. They are ugly plants, with thick, wide leaves. But in California there is a tobacco plant 15 feet tall, with long, siender leaves and fragrant crimson blossoms. Profs. A. R. Olson and Harper Goodspeed have made history with that plant. Dr. Arthur C. Pillsbury, following in their footsteps, has grown a thousand little things with purple biossoms. They are aiso tobacco plants, but as different from the giant specimen as dandelions from & rose. These scientists have been termed wizards and their plants cailed miracles. Their tech- nique, however, is amazingly simple. They work entirely with X-rays. The odd plants have merely been X-rayed. Scientists are constantly discovering new uses for these rays. But until Profs. Olson and Goodspeed began experimenting with plants, nobody dreamed that X-rays might revolution- ize agriculture. Now we know that X-rays can accomplish in a few weeks what nature has been taking millions of years to do. They can speed up evolution until you get dizzy thinking about it. The gentlemen in California take a plant, a common tobacco plant, and X-ray its buds. The buds blossom as usual and go to seed. And from the seeds grow the most astounding plants imaginable. The same plant whose seeds produced the mammoth 15-footer also produced dwarfs with varicolored blossoms and small Jeaves. Ciant and dwarf have gone to seed and perpetuated their own strange qualities. Now.richtonchcfweoln, that may not sound perticularly exciting. Hardly any- body can get excited about a tobacco piant. But if you think a moment, you will appreciate the almost inconceivable possibilities of this great discovery. If an X-rayed plant produces strange seed- lings, how sbout an X-rayed hen hatching & new sort of chicken? How about X-rays producing a giant super- man? The very idea is breath-taking. Animal life mmuthe,wexmimmmoxm Kinds. Dr. Pillsbury, to prove the contention, gives his roses a dose of strychnine. A good, healthy rose gets the same dose as that given a 150-pound man. The effect is exactly the same, Strychnine is a temporary stimulant. The rose perks up, Jooks better and apparently feels better, Then the effect begins to wear off. Next day the poor rose looks terribly haggard and withered and very old. Another dose of strychnine will pep it up again. After repeated doses the drug has no effect. Another stimu- Jant must be used. People, as you probably know, respond in identical fashion to strych- nine. The same thing is true with other stim- ulants. “It is a positive fact,” says Dr. Pillsbury, “that plants and people react alike. I have no doubt that humans would react to X-rays in the same fashion as plants. “But the experiment is too dangerous. We have produced monsters in plant life — ugly, misshapen things without any virtue at all. It is quite right to destroy vile plant life. But what if we produced a monstrous little human? Obviously, we could not destroy it. “The contemplation of lruman experiments is fraught with horror. We mustdihever produce that which we may not destroy. Work among the plants is splendid. Experiments with Jower animals may even be encouraged. But it would be a monstrous sin to experiment with humans.” Roger W. Babson tells of an experiment with hens’ eggs that were exposed fo X-rays. “The radiatéd eggs produced weird chickens,” says Mr. Babson, “creatures with the mutations. Some of them had no wings. ers had wings that dragged on the Some had peculiar long legs. stumps for legs. In some cases the m were for the better and tended to cr proved species of fowl” The real miracle of the discovery sted. ‘The new tobacco plants plants like themselves. The defo! f i 35!; 4 T4 {1k Amazing California Experiments of Scientists in Growing Tobacco Plants Fifteen Feet in Height May Presage Era IWhen Panstes 1Vill Be as Big as Sun flowers asnd Roosters - Grow Like Eagles. will grow into roosters and hens and have broods of similar chicks, who will, in turn, propagate their kind. “The X-rays, in some inexplicable fashion, upset the rhythm of the division of chromo- somes,” explains Dr. Pilisbury. “The chromo- somes, as we know, carry the heredity traits. The X-rayed plants and chickens obviously do not inherit the characteristics of their parents.” Now, of course, you have heard the old truism that “like produces like.” And that every living thing must produce “after its own kind.” This is a Jaw of nature. Yet sometimes nature per- mits variation. Wm Luther Burbank was making his won- derful experiments he discovered that nature effects a change once in a thousand i If Mr. Burbank planted 1,000 secds, 999 of them would be exactly like the parent plant. The thousandth would show some dif- ference. You can imagine how much work that was for Mr. Burbank and how many miles of land he needed to grow his experimental plants, since all save one in a thousand were bound to be exactly alike. And it was only the exceptional one he wanted. “Under the X-rays 70 out of every 100 plants that ordinarily would be extended over thou- sands of years.” The whole uncanny business is linked up with very similar to X-rays, but muc weaker. They are given off by radium, wiW1 is al- ways present everywhere in the earth. It is highly probable that these Gamma rays have a direct influence on all living things; an imperceptible influence, so far as you and “If the premise that evolution has been Scientists are watching with interest the development of plant and animal life after they have been given X-ray treatments. some time, somewhere, the experiment surely will be made. ‘The wondrous changes effected with plants will not be confined to the vegetable and lower animal kingdoms. It may well be that future scientists will be able to develop & race of supermen. As Nietzsche, the great German philosopher, used t0 say, “Man is something which shall be surpassed” * * * “I teach jyou the ‘overman,’” said Nietzsche. The “overman” is precisely what X-rays may develop. But when and how, we can naturally are very reluctant about being ex- perimented upon. v Evmmnr knows what & destructive thing X-rays are when carelessly or inex- pertly handled. Many of the doctors who first worked with X-rays are now permanently maimed. Some have lost fingers and thumbs and sustained dreadful burns. X-ray burns are horribly painful and dangerous as well. Operators using powerful rays are protected in modern laboratories by thick walls of cement and lead so that the X-rays cannot penetrate. It is a strange thing that rays capable of influencing life also destroy life. When the scientists first worked with plants they killed a great many by over-radiation. And a great many more were rendered in- capable of production. As you may know, X- In an experiment with two chickens it was found that the one on the left, re- ceiving ray treatment, developed in size nearly twice as rapidly as the one on the right. brought about by Gamma rays is correct, it is impossible to place any limit on what may be saccomplished through the medium of X-rays. For X-rays are many million times as strong as Gamma rays.” Suppose the scientists X-rayed eagles’ egegs. And suppose one of the eggs hatched an eagle of enormous proportions. If a radiated tobacco plant ean produce a seedling 15 feet tall, a radiated eagle, by the same token, might have birds as big as cows. Then suppose domesticated the young eagles to harness and hitched them fo As Dr, Pllisbury says, it would be very dangerous to experiment with animals, But rays are used frequently in Europe, and occa~ sionally in America, to sterilize criminals and morons. ‘They have, naturally, the same effect upon plants. As first the scientists accidentally killed their experimental plants. Then they discovered that it is a dose just under the sterilization dose that accomplishes miracles. The time for exposure is usually 15 min- utes a plant, although varying results have been obtained by exposing plants for 10 Lu..~ utes, 20 minutes and half an hour. The rays are produced by the Coolidge X-ray tube, which is In virtually universal use. Other scientists have X-rayed files, exactly as the gentlemen from California have X-rayed plants. Dr, H. J. Muller, professor of 200~ logy in the University of Texas, has been awarded $1,000 by the American Soclety of Zoologists for his mnotable contribution %o science “by determining the hereditary effects of X-rays on flies.” Now Dr. James M. Mavor of Union College, Schenectady, is performing fascinating experiments on fruit flies. I'r is remarkable what a shot of X-rays do to a fly. Give the eggs a dose and fliles emerge ‘with white eyes instead of as is customary. And their wings are quite different from their ancestors. It is doubtful whether the X-rayed fiies ase to their parents or thad It remains %0 be seen if these éx improve upon nature. All we know now that X-rays effect & change, but whether o8 not it is beneficial is & mattcr of conjecture. “X-rays seem to destroy symmetry,” admits Dr. Pillsbury, “Take the chickens, for in= stance; they were all thrown out of form. Even the files are a bit lopsided. Their wings drag, and they are not as symmetrical as thelr parents. “As scientists, we are not interested im the commercial value of cur experiments. Olson plants produce more tobacco or less. Yeb the experiments have tremendous commercial possibilities. “At the University eof California they will X-ray, free of charge, a bushel of oals oFf wheat or any seed s farmer may send thems anticipate our results. “There is, however, one experiment thet ¥ have made countless times with the same miraculous result. When I pass X-ray® through the opening bud of a rose, I its natural life. I cam lengthen the any blossom three times by X-raying And human beings, as I have said, exactly like plants to all experiments. I shall never experiment with human life.” (Copyright, 1921.) Ships Harm Hemp Markets Hemp, once a profitable crop in this country, has dwindled in fmportance and the vehicld through which 8 has lost its market was the principal market in former years. It is estimated that in the early colonial days it took the prods uct of 1,000 acres of hemp to make the roped necessary to outfit a single sailing vessel of any) size. Now ships bring jute from India and this ime portation, due t0 i#ts much lower price, has driven hemp from the market to a large extent. In spite of this loss of market, glowing pictures of prosperity to be had from hemp growing are painted for farmers who have had no experie ence with the erop. Agents with something to sell have induced many farmers to atiempd . poins