Evening Star Newspaper, January 17, 1932, Page 70

JANUARY 17, 1932. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, PUTTING A YARDSTICK ON THE CLOUDS— BANDAGING UP THE OLD APPLE TREE— KILLING RATS WITH A POTTED PLANT— FEEDING SANDWICHES TO INSECTS— . CURING CALVES OF WARTS— PUTTING POTATOES THROUGH THE ACID TEST— VACUUM CLEANING A COW’S BACK— Just a Few of the Unusual Daily Tasks of American Government Specialists to-Make Nation Healthier, Happier and More Comfortable Government experls measure the speed of winds by noting how fast the clouds travel, and thus are helpful to aviators. OME bright person ought to take a census of the strangest jobs in the world! Certainly a good many of them would be found in Uncle Sam’s great researcil laboratories in Washington, D. C, where the United States Govern- ment is doing everything possible to make all its citizens healthier, happier and more comfortable. For instance, imagine trying to kill rats with a potted plant! Yet this very thing is being done by a number of Government investi- gators and can be accomplished on a large and successful scale. The plant in question is the curious red squill, or sea onion, belonging to the lily family, and quite popular in Europe as an“ornamental or potted plant. Its original home is among the hills bordering the Mediterranean Sea, where it grows wild. When the huge bulb of the plant, which sometimes weighs 15 pounds, - is ground up thoroughly and dried by an expert, the result is a fine powder with an acrid, prickly taste, which acts as an emetic on most animals except rats and mice when it is used in bait. Already the tests have achieved surprising resuits. Two well known Government scientists, James Silver, associate biologist of the Depart- ment of Agriculture, and J. C. Munch, Bureau of Biological Survey, announce that ordinarily one grain of the powdered red squill will kill a rat weighing a half pound in less than three days. During & recent campaign under the direc- tion of the Bureau of Biological Survey and covering more than 150 counties and cities, more than 40,000 pounds of squill bait were used, with the result that a thorough clean-up of rats was made on at leasi 75 per cent of the premises treated. This record furnishes ample proof of the powder as a raticide. ERTAINLY one of the important jobs of Dr. F. L. Campbell, Government bug ex- pert, is unusual. He feeds sandwiches to in- sects! The sandwiches are made of two tender juicy bits of leaves. But the trouble is, from the insect’s point of view, that the filler con- sists of poison. Dr. Campbell is trying to determine the exact quantity of various poisons required to kill different insects. The reason for using the sandwich bait is that a very exact method has been worked out for measuring the quantity of poison on a circular bit of leaf. The top layer of the sandwich is put on to prevent the insect from crawling over the poison and re- moving part of it. The insects used for the first experiments were silkworms, and naturally the sandwich was made of mulberry leaves. The insects are allowed to feed on the sand- wiches until observers think they have eaten about enough to prove fatal. By -carefully measuring the surface of the remaining part of the leaf sandwich it is possible to calculate the amount of poison eaten by each bug. The insects are given 48 hours to die or recover. Dr. Campbell expects to continue his experi- ments, using &8 many insects and poisons as the nature of the work will permit. How would you like to be a snail hunter in Uncle Sam’s employ? This job is far more imporiant than it may sound, for the fact is that tnails on our Western sheep and cattle ranges nzve been known to kill, indirectly, thousand: upon thousands of these valuable animals. Living on the fresh-water snail is a parasite called the liver fluke, which attaches itself to live stock, bringing infection in its wake. Small wonder, then, that parasitologists of the Government are developing practical methods of killing snails wholesale. They have Certain potted plants become rat poison under supervision of scientists in the United States Government research labora- tories. found that it is easy to poison the snails in small gtreams by dropping a sack of copper sulphate into the stream near its source. Keeping eggs “well oiled” is the unique task of T. L. Swenson, Government bacteriologist. Recently he invented & new vacuum oiling processwhichkeepsswngeeggsmzhesh condition for a longer time than any method hitherto devised. In fact, the eggs are hailed as being as tasty and of as general high qual- ity as those you purchase direct from a neigh- boring farm. Did you know that clouds could be used to measure the speed of the wind for aviators? Not many people do. Yet this surprising fact was discovered just recently by enterprising experts of the United States Weather Bureau. First of all, these scientists noted that a cloud, since it travels with the wind, makes observable the speed of the wind at & certain altitude. This discov-ry is highly important for the safety of fl: zrs, because whenever possible they should know the speed of the wind at various levels. New apparatus has been designed by the Government experts to determine exactly how fast a cloud is moving. They sizht the clouds in a black mirror, mounted in a frame grad- uated in degrees. By observing the movement of the image of a cloud as reflected by the mirror for a certain period of time, they get one factor for their computations. The other factor is the height of the cloud above the earth. The observer determines the distance from the earth to the cloud by releas- ing a standard “ceiling” balloon and watching it until it disappears into a cloud. These balloons are inflated to a certain pressure, and the observer knows how rapidly such a balloon rises. By timing it from the moment of release until 1t enters the cloud, it is easy to make a close estimate of the height of the balloon. With this as a second factor, the observers can compute the rate at which the cloud is mov- ing, and can tell the pilot whether he will fly against a headwind or have the benefit of a tailwind. ONE of the strangest sights in the world is a “bandaged” apple tree. If you ever see one, it is not necessarily a sign that the tree in question is suffering from injuries. The chances are that some enterprising Govern- ment scientist is conducting a novel and im- portant experiment to set a trap for an old enemy, the coddling moth, which causes a $20,- 000,000 loss annually to the Nation's apple growers When the larvae of this insect are ready to make their cocoons they look for a sheitered Keeping eggs “well oiled” is the task of another expert in the Department of Agriculture. T. L. Swenson, bacteriologist, who uses a vacuum process, shown above, which he invented. It has been found that “oiled” eggs keep better than when pre- served in other solutions. spot around the trunk; that makes an ideal place. Ordinary paper or burlap bands formerly were used by Uncle Sam to bandage such trees. However, under such conditions it was necessary to send men through the orchard at intervals to destroy the larvae collected in the bands. In an effort to eliminate this job, specialists of the department have been ex- perimenting with bands treated with various chemicals which will kill the larvae. They report that a combination of betanaphthol and lubricating oil gives satisfactory results, with no apparent injury to the trees. We're all familiar with “banana oil.” But who ever heard of banana powder? Yet it is regarded as so important to human welfare that certain experts of the United States Bu- reau of Home Economics recently have been making tests with the powder to determine its vitamin value for the diet of special types of invalids and convalescents. The results thus far are very encouraging. The powder, made from fresh raw bananas, is known to be & good source of vitamin G, retaining about three-fourths of the fresh fruit vitamin G. Other home economics experts of the bureau have the novel job of putting potatoes to the “acid test.” This is a simple method for se- lecting those storage potatoes which will make good chips or French fries. A test for the soluble sugars in potatoes is the key that unlocks the secret of their cooking qualities since an excessive amount of these sugars pro- duces a discoloration in French fries and chips and a sweetness in baked or boiled po- tatoes that is distasteful to many people. Potatoes stored at temperatures ranging from 32 degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit accumu- late certain soluble sugars as a result of the breakdown of starch. In general, the lower the storage temperature the greater the amount of soluble sugars and the darker the color of the chips. To make the test a sample from the center of the potato is placed in a yellow solution of picric acid and sodium carbonate in a small test tube and heated over the flame of an alcohol lamp until it boils for a half minute. Samples from potatoes that have not been stored at too low temperatures change the color of the solution to an orange yellow, but the excessive amount of sugars in tubers stored at low temperatures changes the color to a deep red or brown. Probably the strangest task of all the Gov- ernment scientists is that of breeding insects to cure bone diseases. This falls to the lot of Dr. G. F. White, bug expert of the Bureau of Entomology. Our story goes back to the battlefields of France during the World War and concerns an accidental discovery made by the recently de- ceased Dr. William S. Baer, eminent surgeon of Johns Hopkins University, who served with the American Expeditionary Forces. One day there came to his attention a sight not out of the ordinary, apparently, but one which caused him considerable reflection — two wounded soldiers who had been lying on the field for seven days were brought into the staff hospital. ‘Their wounds were heavily infested with the larvae of a certain kind of blow-fly, but, strangely enough, were heal- ing exceptionally well. It was this incident, apparently trivial in itself, that started Dr. Baer on investigations which led a few months ago to his unique contribution to his beloved profession. For some 32 years, while connected with the Johns Hopkins Medical School, he had been special- izing in the surgical treatment of strange bone diseases, outstanding among which is osteo= myelitis, characterized by pronounced inflame mation of legs and arms. Indeed many pa- tients have been forced to undergo numerous operations over long periods of time. The greatest difficulty in attempting to cure this disease. which all too frequently results in crippled limbs and unsightly wounds, has been that it seemed virtually impossible to clean out thoroughly the large mass of infected, dead material ledged deep down in the bony crevices, where most antiseptics failed to pene- te. However, some months ago, Dr. Baer, re- memberirg vividly that observation on a French battlefield, decided to try an experiment. Why not, he reasoned, put some of the little healers into the wounds and see whether or not they could accomplish in an antiseptic and curative way what medical science, with all its reputed knowledge, had failed to do? Certainly there must be some excellent reason for the clean and wholesome appearance of the wounds of those two so'diess. ERE, indeed, was a bold decision. If the experiment failed, then possibly Dr. Baer would be accused by his learned colleagues of essaying a crazy move. But if it succeeded? Well, then, think of the thousands of cripples who would be restored from living death to normal health. Anyhow, the distinguished surgeon, bearing all these things in mind, went right ahead with his plans. First of all, he made a pains- taking study of flies, and then when he be- lieved he had found the particular species he wanted, he hired qualified assistants and took the plunge. As luck would have it, the method utilized by the scientist on his very first patient met with pronounced success. Employing his surgical skill to best advantage, he cut clear down to the bone itself, making a wedge- shaped cavity in the infected region, and then placed a large number of living larvae of two kinds of blow-fly into the cavity, covering them with a piece of disinfected wire gauze. Whereupon Dr. Baer adopted the practice of rempoving the larvae by the simple process of washing them out with an antiseptic solu- tion after they had remained in the wound five days, Then he would put in a fresh batch of “healers.” * After his first test had been completed, Dr. Baer tried the new insect treatment on about 300 patients. All the children and three- fourths of the adults were cured. Today many other imnortant medical interests are contem- plating the utilization of the unique method he developed, including private surgeons in Washington and important hospitals in Ohio and New York State. The success of Dr. Baer’s experiments and the great number of cases throughout the Nation to which the new treatment is adapted have created an ever-increasing demand for the “little healers,” which are now propagated in large quantities. (Copyright, 1932.) Storage of Cotton ALED cotton held on the farm is subject to loss that amounts in some cases to as much as half of the weight of a 500-pound bale. Rather exhaustive tests have been conducted by the Department of Agriculture to ascertain the results of various methods of storage and it has been found that the annual loss from improper methods runs as high as $70,000,000. The usual custom in some sections cf leav- ing the bales piled in the open on the ground and allowing them to stand unattended until sold has brought tremendous loss. Bales placed flat have lost as high as 273 pounds, while those placed on edge have lost 109 pounds. Those placed on edge and turned once a week have lost but 64 pounds on the average, while those placed on end and turned weekly have lost but 19 pounds. Other bales placed on timbers and covered with tarpaulins have lost but 10 pounds and those placed under cover in properly con- structed warehouses have lost but 4 pounds. This year, because of the surplus from last year's crops, it is feared the losses from im- proper storage methods may run into heavy figures.