STUDY OF RATS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 July 1924, Page 3

STUDY OF RATS.

TO SOLVE MOTHERHOOD PROBLEMS.

Dr. Gladys Hartwell, of 1/nulon, is solving one of the problems of mot,!torera ft by a strange method—the study of rats. They live among several hundred girl students who have so completely overcome the aversion to rats that they would make pets of them if this "ere allowed. Dr. Hartwell believes that tho reason why many well-to-do mothers cannot feed their babies is that they tire tiiemselves actually too well fed, in the sense of being too richly fed. This is only one of a series of conclusions which Dr. Hartwell has drawn from the commonly detested rat. She has proved it by giving mother rats such foods :us meat, fish and Hinder 'in plenty, but no vegetables. The results of this surplus of proteins has been apparent at olive. The votmg rats became nervous and irritable; they failed to grow ; "ere overtaken by spasms and finally died. Before this had happened often the in.turc.sts of science and kindly nature of Dr. Hartwell intervened. A little fruit or vegetable juice given to the.another worked

like a miracle and the young rats became their naturally happy, placid and thriving selves again. Dr. Hartwell uses rats, .-lie told a “Daily News” interviewer, because they like all the lends a human likes and because they breed rapidly live contentedly, and with very little trouble can he kept clean and healthy. Other scientists do not find the mailer so simple. Requests for rats collie to her from unsuccessful keepers all over the world. Her own explanation of her success is that now she actually likes rats. In a. lofty room at the Household and Social Science Department of King’s College, with large windows shaded by the garden trees, |)r. Hartwell has now I -TOO rats, all the descendants of a pair of Norwegian rats with which she commenced her studies. A sickly rat is iso I a ted at once, and in consequence Miss Hartwell and her assistant handle the rats with astonishing freedom. They come at a call, sit perfectly quiet on the scales for their daily weighing, or sit with their faces touching J)r Hartwell'is own "bile she talks to them in baby language. Site recognises them all individually hy their markings, for they are all prettily piebald. They an- fed on rations of butter, meat, and vegetables, measured out in little dishes, all standing in rows.

So soothing is the academic nit- of Campden Hill and this < ansidera't.ei treatment, that the mothers allow their little ones to he weighed from the day of their birth and never think of eating them. They are weighed in a nest of cotton wool, and full records of them all are kept -even to the extent of notes about their temper and behaviour.

The natural repulsion of the observer quickly disappears when Dr. Haltwell. glowing with enthusiasm for hotwork, explains what lessons may Co learnt from her rats for the bouolit of

the coming generation. The terrible effects on child life of undorlooding or wrong feeding are evident "hen she sets side hy side two rats, horn on the same day. treated in exactly the same "ay. except that one if them has been brought up hy a mother fed on a. slum diet, and as the resit.i at the end of three weeks lookslike a dwarf, being, indeed, only about a third of the size of the young giant whose mother has had a good mixed diet.

Another striking moral fur medical men and nurses is to he drawn fiom a race of rats whi; h has lived and bred, hut has never reared one of its young because its diet purposely, of course has contained too much protoin (li.sli. meat. etc.l and too little

vitatuinc R. " hi‘,h is contained in many fruits and vegetables. The les-

son for humanity to be drawn from such an cxnni| le may ohvioi'.sly he of the most vital importance. Wo have gone to the ant to learn iinlus-

My: \\c must go to the rat. it seems to learn the si ioni c of dietetics. |)r. Hartwell's work is mainly linanced by the Medical Research (culled. Her large family is not all inexpensive |one. Her .I'esnlls are watched "ith interest by .specialists all over i lie world. Some of them have been previously communicated ill the columns of the 'Daily News” by Prolessor Motlram. p-iolV.ssor of physiology. to whom she acts as assistant. Their value fur human beings was tested by the principal of the college. Dr. Henry, "ho discovered that a large Heard of Guardians in Lancashire was producing illness among the children under its care by giving them a diet which had been proved in the case of rats to cause exactly the- same symptoms. The main lessons lor mothers which Dr. Hartwell deduces from her charges are that it matters comparatively little what the mother eats before the child is borne, hut that afterwards safety ami health are to he found in a thoroughly well-mixed diet.