SCIENCE NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1927, Page 4

SCIENCE NOTES

(By Science Service)

VACCINE SAVES THE BABIES,

Safeguarding the babies is the lino along which the French have made outstanding progress in cutting into the tuberculosis death rate. Tuberculosis inoculation has reduced infant mortality to less than one per hundred during the first years of life. Dr B. 'Weill-Halle, of the College of Medicine a- the University of Paris, told health workers attending the National Tuberculosis Association meeting at Washington in October. The mortality of children of the same age who had not I icon vaccinated and roared under tho same conditions in tubercular families, declared Dr Weill-Halle, was at least twenty-live per hundred. The tuberculosis vaccine used on the babies in the Paris slums was the famous BCG originated by Prof. Albert Calmette, of the Pasteur Institute. The vaccine is not a cure for the disease, stated the French specialist, but careful experiments with calves and monkeys, as well as babies, show that vaccinated individuals will not contract the diseaso even when in close contact with severe cases for a period of three years, or longer. Co-operation with physicians and medical workers in other countries have enabled tbc French scienlists to collect enough data, from widespread sources to establish definitely the two facts; that the process is harmless, and that it docs protect newborn babies from contracting tbo disease from tubercular mothers. Only new born are inoculated, said Dr WeillHalle, and that during the first hours of life. Infants have been so treated in France, Great Britain, Belgium and Sweden with equal success. WHISTLING ARROWS. A Chinese whistling arrow, which served the purpose thousands of years ago, that the modern tracer bullet of anti-aircraft guns does to-day, has been added to tile collection of other relics of the mystic East at the United States National Museum, at Washington, bv Colonel E. IT. Humphrey, of tbc i .S. Army. This ancient weapon resembles an ordinary arrow, except, for a hollow bulb on tbo front, shaped like a large acorn, where the arrow-bead should be. This hollow bulb is slit with rrosoont-shnpod openings, through which tbo air rushes when it is in flight, producing a shrill whistle. The arrow, museum officials state, was used in ancient China to indicate the course of flight, as well as for a signalling device and a means of terrorising the enemy. This same principle is used in modern warfare, in tracer bullets, which contain a substance that leaves a trail of smoke behind it. In antiaircraft machine guns every third bullet is thus marked, enabling the gunner to follow tho course of his shots. The whistling arrow is said to have been introduced into China by the Tartars. When besieging towns at night the ancient tribesmen fired the arrows high over the walls. Legends tell us how terrorised Hie inhabitants were. They believed that the wierd noises were the bowls of flying devils, they lost their morale, and believing their enemies to be in league with the evil spirits often opened their gates to them and tried to appease them wit!] gifts, instead of resisting them in battle.

EXPENSIVE FOODS PREFERRED. 3Tr Holbrook AVorkin<x, of the Food Research Institute at Stanford T'niversif y, California, reports that rr tho most striking ami significant characteristic of the changes in food consumpton in America since 7919 is the tendency to increased consumption of the more expensive foods and to decreased consumption of the less expensive foods.” Mr Working, who has been investigating the amount of flour consumed by each American, has found that the flour diet has fallen off 27 I per cent from 7904 to 7923. when the last census figures were tabulated. But if Americans eatjess bread they make up the deficit with other foods. Afore meat and choicer cuts, of meat are going into the market basket, with more sugar, dairy products, and vegetables. The factors which have hit the flour barrel below the belt are complex. Air "Working cites the greater prosperity of the labouring man, which enables him to buy a greater variety of food; also improved facilities for handling and transporting perishable foods, as well as the tendency to lews heavy manual labour in this country, which means that quantities of plain bread are no longer so important as low-priced standard fuel to supply energy. Still another factor is the tendency toward a decline in total food consumption in this country, which indicates tliat a slightly smaller food ration is becoming the rule. Flour consumption per capita declined at a sharper rate between 191!) and 1923. than it had been falling off from 1904 to 1979, and Air AVorking does not believe that the end of the toboggan lias been reached. Looking toward tile future, lie predicts that “increasing prosperity, diversification of the diet, and declining total food consumpton will probably continue to operate in the direction of decreasing flour consumption. The magnitude of their effect will probably not be great. But the influence of factors involved under the fourth head, the inroads of sugar on the cereals in the American diet, may be much greater.”