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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1953-2-11, Page 3TIILIi41&I FRONT 'Two years ago,>.4sSeeki a 8dt- tor Dick Davids, visiting Swed- en, ran across two scientists ,there who Were producing giant rabbits by treating sperm with chemicals, Farjn Journal has kept track of this research ever since and now presents a pro- gress' report, (dealing with hogs, —The Editors:) A big white boar, lazying away, at an experimental station in ' Sweden, may. go down as the most famous hog in history. "Eber" (the name means boar in German) was born, unprom- isingly enough, in a litter of ten, weighing a pound less than the others, But at one week he'd caught up, and at three weeks he'd grown past all his litter - mates. From there on he grew even faster. •`fie reached 200 pounds in. 19% less time than average Swedish hogs and on 85% of the feed. Eber is the first hog ever to have his germ cells radically changed by .man. He's a.'"trip- loid," has half again more chrom- osomes than the usual or "dip- loid" hogs. The two Swedish Scientists, Professors Gosta Haggquist and Allan Bane, who produced Eber, didn't set out to breed a super - hog. They simply wanted to prove a point to other scientists: that colchicine (a powder used in treating gout) can be used. to change germ plasm in animals just the way plant breeders have used it in recent years to pro- duce those giant flowers in your wife's garden. ("Tetra" snap- dragons, for instance.) Colchicine has revolutionized plant breed- ing, because it produces com- pletely new shapes and colors and occasionally enormous size and vtgor—in a single genera- tion. Starting first with frogs, Hagg- quist mixed colchicine with the sperm, and produced tadpoles that kept right on growing to enormous size, but never chang- ed into frogs. On rabbits, they produced off - Humility For Mahatma—British Socialist Leader. Clement Attlee removes his hat and shoes in reverent respect before laying d wreath on the tomb of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi, Attlee was en route to the Asian Socialist Conference at Ran- goon. spring twice as big as their par- ents. These rabbits bore young, too, but they were dead at birth or died shortly. Two years ago they tackled hogs, and, working with farmers in Sweden, , treated sperm in scores of litters. Some pigs were freaks, some died or were born dead, others linked no -different from the 'usual. It seemednus it the pig experiment was a :tail- . ure.. But a little later, Eber start- ed to walk away from the other's in siie. Since then, the scientists have produced five other triploids, three of which got foot-and- mouth disease and had to be kill- ed. (That disease has played hav- oc with '.Swedish research,) Will Eber be a giant? No. At a year and five months, ted weigh-' ed 572 'pounds, although he'd been kept thin to test his repro- ductive powers. His rate of gain, • compared to American stand- ards, is not phenomenal... Can Eber sire live pigs? That's a question the Swedes had anx- iously awaited. Eber's first litter has nine healthy pigs. One that was lain on and killed had chro- mosomes about half-wayin_num- ber between sire and dam. A younger triploid boar has served a sow ,which is pregnant, The third triploid, a sow, bas just far- rowed eight pigs. Whether or not Eber and the two other living triploids can found a new race of faster -gain- ing, more efficient hogs is ques- tionable. We may already have U.S. strains as good or (better. The important thing is this: We now know that 'colchicine works on animals, and with it, we may have a tremendous new tool for breeding better stock, whether Eber and the other hogs in present experiments work out that way or not. —From "The Farm Journal,'• Changed His Story Saved A Girl's Life A famous British surgeon once found a slowly -dying girl read- ing a newspaper serial in which the heroine suffered from the same disease she had., He hurried to the author and asked how the serial ended, and was told that the character died in the last instalment. "Can you alter the ending so that the heroine lives?" he asked, and went on to explain his theory. He believed that if his patient' read of a similar case surviving she might find the strength to combat her disease. The author willingly agreed to change his story, and the serial's heroine and patient both lived. That is only one example of the power of suggestion. Some doc- tors believe that suggestion is the cause of many human ail- ments. A patient believes himself to be ill, and makes himself ill simply by worrying. Many people believe that cof- fee prevents sleep, due to the presence of a drug named cof- fein. Doctors at fi London_hospital decided to find out how much sleep was prevented by the drug and how mach by suggestion, A selected group stf patients were given coffee one,nigltt; and the next night, at the'same•hour, they were given milk: All the patients reported that they went to sleep quicker and slept more soundly on the second night. They were never told that the milk had been mixed with three times as much caffein as was in the coffee. CROSSWORD PUZZLE Act -toss 6'1, i itpo0Npa 1 Unit of '%•elate 6t Fo'hmer7,r;_ 1 50 Aga 5 beast et . 67tunl beingburden •. tu+.enN 8 Not so much 12 City In Nevada ' 13 Stake 14Cant sidelong lances 10 singing bite 17. Grating 18. Mediterranean Island 20 Wrath 22. Urge' 23. nevoered 24' 4tali•eervant 10 Thal woman 27 Kind 61 tui 29 Mroctlnn 41 Rodent 32 Blnndor X38• r'nable,to Red the way 16 Shelf over drenlace r38. Caress 19. 6tu4tcal Oratt,a U Tilxflalr4 to Ianlsthre 44. Cheering' Syll44.Oderated 43, Depart, . 41, Gerinah rlvt Ainerloen Indian • 661. 00 the ooean tL Roman emperor W. Toner 2. Toll 3. Deer's horn 4. Debatable 6. Camel's hair cloth i, Characterletlo of old age 7. Look Cxedlq 8, Ship'a record 9. Passage out 10.Slender.,. 11. Sweet lag 11 , Flier 2. 61eerlast ng 25. tweet Da. Wo ae'e title 90. Skil 32. Anrlele 33. Chic; 54. Different ones 35. Teacher. a, Rube out 37. Dlkee 38. Inclined tp 42. Vex 46. Paoli( y 48. Decay 60 Greek Letter 2 3 4 Ir 15 I8 x► s rL 3 9 10 I1 3' 14- 16 4 16 K 19 \�1 25 3.0 33 05 4� h 29 19 43 }l S$ 44 5 17 30 4 2a 24 41 37:. 48 49, 53 50 5f 04. • 54 57 Ansrer Elsewi ere ou This Page Glowing Example of Ingenuity -Bernard mJ Patton has fashioned.. the glowing put -of -doors room, above, of revitalized fluorescent lamps, Patton 'has'' devised/on electron,e device, which gives new life tp about 80 per cent of burneci-out fluorescent lamps. The feat, once:corlsidered," "impossible gives as much as ,2,000 hours of 'usefulness to the tubes, and hes supplied Patton with a fast - 'growing business. WHY? The days may be short, but the evenings die long. plenty long enough to puzzle out some of the answers—if there are answers. , Why are the long shadows of morning and evening so blue on the snow? Why does an oak hold so long to its dead, dry leaves?. Why does a dog, let out of the house, roll happily in a snow - bank, then demand to be let back in as soon as it begins to snow again? How does a blue jay roll an ear of corn, .tightly packed against the slats or wire mesh of a corn crib, to get at the kernels on the other side? Why doers a•squirrel run up the side of a barn, over the roof, and down the other side, when he could so easily go around? Why does a crow choose the middle of a snow-covered meadow as a place to strut? Don't his feet ever get cold? Why does a white pine have five branches in each whorl, five needles in each bunch, instead of three or six? Flies freeze, eventually; why don't wooly -bear caterpillars? Why don't• cats like snow? They like milk, which. is the same color. Some cats will even eat frozen milk, • ' Why are woodchucks allowed to hibernate and rabbits made to stay awake all winter? Why does smoke twist ev¢n when rising from a square flue? Why does a nuthatch's beak tilt up at the end, like a disdainful nose? And why does a nuthatch look as if he were cross-eyed? The towhee's' eyes are red, some owls have yellow eyes; is there such a thing as a blue-eyed bird? The day lengthens by forty- eight minutes during January, but it gains only fourteen of those minutes in the mornings. Why? In layman's language, please. Why do January after- noons lengthen so much more than January mornings? - Why? —From the New York Times Lackof Nails, Lumber, Boosts British Crime By TOM A. CULLEN NEA Special Correspondent London—(NEA)—Largely f o r want of , some nails—and some lumber to put between them— Britain is slowly losing her bat- tle against lawlessness, A shortage of nails, lumber and other building materials has led to an acute lack of housing. Experts claim the housing prob- lem is a big factor in England's growing crime rate. It's partly to blame, for in- stance, for a shortage of 10,000 policemen, Sir Harold .Scott, T on - don police commisioner, says the lack of homes is an obstacle to recruiting. "I can't get enough men," he complains, "Indeed, I even lose a lot of men I already have. All because there are no homes, for themselves and their families." • ,• e * r Aside from its effect on'Polite forces, the housing shortage has helped hike the divorce rate. And with so many "broke: homes," there has come the usual .rise in juvenile delinquency. Law -breakers meet the housing problem again when they're caught and sent to prison. Bri- tish prisons are more crowded today than they've been for 75, years. More than 4500 inmates are sleeping three to a cell 'for lack of space. The annual report of the Pri- son Commisioners lists 24,QQ0 in - nates, the most since 1877. The ' number has been rising steadily for three years, sometimes et thereto of 300 or more a month/ * • 0 Three-fourths are "repeaters," with one or more previous con- • victions. They're .in and out of • custody so 'often that some ob- servers have facetiously sug- gested that the prisons use re- volving doors. • The governors of the Stafford and Lewes reformatories report a continued drop in the quality of young first ofi'enders, At Lewes, they're "less alert . , . less reliable "At Stafford, the , governor says: "A number of lads to whom°I've spoken about their futures have said, 'I hope P 8orlt tome back,' almost as if they had no power of decision as to whe- ther they would er not" The director of a regional training prison . chimes' in' 'b' ' branding 'the attitudes of young prisoners "appalling." , • e • "They regard the State as ap• - parently possessing an unlimited number of bottomless coffers," he British Bobby — There aren't enaugh,,of them -because there isn't enough housing. says, "which are there to supply their financial needs whenever they feel like -it." The. prisons can't handle the influx. All available rooms and huts in 23 prisons are being used for sleeping purposes. But the • commisioners report a need for . at least six new 500 -than insti- tutions to siphon off the excess. 11estridtions on capital expen- ditures' and staffs, however, have ruled out much expansion. The first pew prisop under the build= ing program will be started this year, but may not b'e ready for use until sometime in 1957. Until then, the Prison Com- missioners say the situation stands to get worse, not better. All for the want of some nails, Wants To Take Your Birthday Away Is your birthday on March 31st, May 31st, August 31st, or December 31st? If so, Elizabeth Achelis wants to take it way. She is the found- er of the World Calendar .Asso- ciation of New York, which be- lieves that its new calendar will come into operation on New Year's Day, 1956, by order of the United Nations, And ,if it does, those four birthdays will dis- appear. For years industries and goy- ernments have been worried about our calendar, with its months of varying lengths, and red -letters days falling on a dif- ferent day of the week every year. It has meant that in some years workers have fifty-one pay days, and in others fifty-three. The Inland Revenue, the rail- ways, the Board of Trade, and similar organizations dealing with figures of daily trade, find their annual statistics see -sawing because the number of Satur- days " and Sundays varies from year to year. The new calendar would bring order out of chaos. Every year would start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday, as would each quarter. In each quarter the first month would consist of 31 days, and the other two of 30 each. This system leaves year rather short, and to make up the lost days Elizabeth Achelis has an idea which everyone would like. When the last day of 1955, De- cember 30th, arrives, the first day of 1956, January 1st, will still be twenty-four hours away. Between it will come a nameless day, with no date and no descrip- tion! The plan is to make it a World Holiday on which all the member .rations of U.N. woud dedicate themselves to peace. The nameless day between the years would occur annually. In a leap year another holiday would come between Saturday, June 30th, and Sunday, July 1st. The World Calendar Association points out that for all nations in the Northern Hemisphere (the bulk of the world's population) a leap year day in midsummer, making a long week -end, would be far more popular than the extra day in the wintry weather of February. Apart from those who would lose their birthdays there is op- position to the proposed calen- dar. Religious groups are ready to protest at a scheme which inevitably will affect the days of many religious observances; while the two extra holidays, ac- cording to their views, tamper with the divine order of six days of labour followed by one of rest and worship. Calendar and diary manufac- turers also wonder about the re- sults on their trade. No one will ever need to consult a calender to see on what day any date falls. It will be the same every yearl Several nations are supporting the plan, and it is likely to cause a lot of discussion before the General Assembly in the months to come. Warships In Battle With Women Aboard One always thinks of the Brit- ish Navy as a. purely masculine. affair, and a battleship as ane of the last male strongholds, yet feminine influence in the Navy has always been strong. New ships are christened by ladies, and every ship is referred to as "she," Both these customs began with the Ancient Greeks, They were worshippers of beauty, and' the grace and line of a ship remind- ed them so much of the beauty of the female figure that they gave their boats feminine names. Until less than a century ago every new ship that left a Brit- ish shipyard was christened by the captain's wife. It was her privilege to name the ship and wish the men and passengers good fortune. Naval officers used to have their wives with them on board, whether they were merely on a routine voyage or sailing into battle, The authorities were ware of this, although it was not recog- nized officially. Lord Nelson's letters, written before and after the Teneriffe Battle, in 1797, refer to Mrs. Fremantle, wife of Captain Fre- mantle, of the "Seahorse," who was on board that ship through- out the action, The Battle of the Nile was witnessed by two lad- ies from the state cabin of the first ship to attack, "Show A Leg;". Despite the terrific hammer- ing received by the "Victory" and the "Defiance" at the Battle of Trafalgar, ladies were present. There were at least two on board the "Victory," and an offi- cer's wife was on board the "De- fiance," This privilege was extended only to officers' wives. But the Admiralty was sympathetic to- wards the ratings, many of whom did not see their homes for months on end. It was permitted for all sailors' wives to join the ship as soon as she reached har- bour, and to live on board until the next sailing date. This custom Ied to the well- known bo'sun's mate's morning call: "Show a Leg," so that he could tell who were sailors and who were visiting wives. When the pipe was heard the passen- gers stuck a leg from under the clothes so that the bo'sun's mate could identify their sex, This practice ended as the re- sult of more feminine influence, Princess Caroline made an offi- cial visit to the flagship "Caesar," commanded by Sir Richard Strachan, in 1806. There were many ladies on board, and Sir Richard ordered them below until the visit was over. It was unfortunate that Caroline was in a bad temper and glimpsed one or two of them, She upbraided Sir Richard in front of the crew, and then visit- ed the Admiralty and command- ed that the custom should cease. 1JNMY S IIQQL LESSON By, ite'u, ft. Sarclap Warren B.A.; B.A. Gaining orosinlg the Iiingdaaut Matthew ?,1:33.13 Memory - Selection: Fear nets, little Stock;. for it Is your father good pleasure to give you doe lkingdom. Luke 12:32, The kingdom of God has been described as the "reign" of God, "the kingdom'of right relation- ships," and "the regime in whirls love reigns." Jesus teaches about the kingdom almost 'wholly is pictures. There are three pic- tures in today's lesson though only one is in the printed poi. tion. It is the old story of abused, stewardship, The melt, to whom the vineyard had' been let ars intoxicated with a sense of greed at the time of harvest. The ser- vants sent to receive the owner's portion are beaten, stoned or slain, Then comes the owner's son. Surely they 'will respect him. But no; recognizing that hat is heir, they catch him, lead him. out of the vineyard and slay him, They think they will have the inheritance. But the Owner has another thought. These wicketfi husband -men are slain and the vineyard is let to others. Jesus makes the application tut the Jewish leaders. God's king- dom will be taken from this nation so richly blessed because they rejected the message of God's profits and are even none plotting to slay His Son, It hap- pened that way. The message itt the Kingdom went to the Gen- tiles, many of whom gladly re- ceived the truth. The day of the Gentiles was ushered in. But God hasn't forgotten His ancient people. They are gathering back to the land promised to their father Abraham. Some are turn- ing to the Messiah. Israel is 6t tiny country, but none is so ins - portant. Watch for God's deal- ings with this people. Not all the Gentiles are receiv- ing the kingdom. Many are sneering at God's commands and, promises. Disaster will result Be not deceived; God is net mocked: for whatsoever a- mast soweth, that shall he also reap,. For he that soweth to his desk shall of the flesh reap corrup- tion; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap lite everlasting." Gal. 6:7, 8. - (Upside down to prevent peeking). UttlaEi MEC BEEF EIMEI IEEE i7©1310 0©0 DMIDC MWElli 17/0E (Nag 191553 <irilDEICJ !AgC WI©©0oa ©Ooo. tOM PIM: ©©m oo1AL 1-. d©© '0©©0© BOO 151151DQ BOOP M©R0 ©M ' C7t0 .;, a©Nid • ri 11IT4 Bringin' Up Bridget—Buffalo Zoo attendants brought out a block and tackle to get Bridget back on her feet after finding the full- grown giraffe sprawled on her cage floor ohe morning. Curator Joseph Abgotf, at right, makes a final adjustment of the rope. Due to their bone structure, giraffes are unable to rise. ER HrNYou 7 M pRONXCL*O jNE t3,A014 wAlks. I kNoW. YoU'RB GIVING -131M "I ORDERS BY RADIO 7DA5ET INSTAII.2D IN JITTG71s HAT SUt 140W Do YOU 4311- THU/W ro MIND1 • fa WHY THEY 7233 TDD DUMD ... RNALI2:ETltAT IP THEY QUIT 2 CO ILDDl' Ae O ANYri4,N By Arthur Pointer