At Rochester

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology met at Rochester, N. Y., last week; gave visitors opportunities to explain and to learn.

Diabetes. Dr. Richard I. Wagner of Morristown (N. J.) Psychiatric Institute, extracted from huckleberries "myrtillin," substance of unknown chemical composition. Fed to some diabetic dogs by Dr. Frederick M. Allen of Morristown, "myrtillin" seemed to benefit. It may develop as an alternative to insulin as diabetic treatment.

Peritonitis. Drs. Bernard Steinberg and Harry Goldblatt of Cleveland took pus from the diseased peritoneum of one patient, made a vaccine of the pus, and with that vaccine cured other cases of peritonitis.

Cancer. Dr. Aldred Scott War-thin of Ann Arbor, Mich., agreed with Dr. Maud Slye of Chicago that the disposition to or resistance to cancer is inheritable. She has performed, during 16 years, 80,000 cancer experiments on mice. The two recommended a central bureau for cancer statistics, agreeing that in three generations (about 90 years) man would have enough cancer data to draw conclusions that would lead to a cure.

Compressed Living. Dr. Millard C. Marsh of Springville, N. Y., kept a batch of tumorous mice living in compressed air. Tumor growth was checked and they lived 20% longer than did healthy mice caged in fresh, open air. Humans would benefit likewise, said Dr. Marsh, if they could carry on all their activities in compression chambers.

Exhaled Alcohol. In Cincinnati Dr. Emil Bogen persuaded persons arrested for intoxication to blow up football bladders. Such exhaled gasses he made to pass through a solution of potassium bichromate, which changed from yellow to green in proportion to the amount of alcohol on the individual's breath. Extra Physical Work up to ten times normal is possible for a human in fair health. Neither the heart nor lungs limited the amount of work the body could do, in the bicycle-riding experiments of Dr. L. J. Henderson of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Unsympathetic Cat. Dr. Walter Bradford Cannon of Harvard displayed a cat from which he, as a turn of surgical skill, had removed considerable of its sympathetic nervous system. This is the network of nerves which regulate the automatic functions of the body, as digestion, breathing. It is far older (biologically) and far more essential to life than that part of the brain in which conscious thought takes place--the cortex. The cat thus operated upon by Dr. Cannon lacked many normally automatic responses to stimuli. A fearsome object, as a dog, did not make it bristle its fur in either fright or anger; its body temperature did not react to counterbalance changes of room temperatures. The experiment thus proves surgically what pharmocologists have long known from the effects of certain drugs (atropin, nitrate, pilocarpin, morphin), what mothers have learned empirically from the rages and frights of their children.