1951-03-24 — Page 3

PRESENCE of cold virus is determined by the revolutionary colostr test, which darkens the specimen. año clear liquid is germ-froo,

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1951.

SCIENCE STALKS THE COMMON COLD

COLDER

ILLUMINATED by a special device, a hen's egg is inoculated with the cold virus by a government bacteriologist-preparing new cultures.

Wearing a disease-proof mask, a technician enters the "cold" room, where volunteers rest after exposure to virus. All men, with one exception, caught cold after single Injadion:

WITH THE hot breath of medical science breathing down its neck,

the common cold seems well on its way to eventual control. By tracking down the clusive sub-germ, health sleuths have opened the door to a possible saving of an estimated billion dollars which industry loses annually in time out for sickness, And then there's the billon or more spent by after the snifter show up.

A history-making project is in progress at the US. National Institute of Health at Bethesda, Md., where a newly-developed cold test has speeded up the testing part of research about 730 percent. The germ is so tiny it cannot be separated from a specimen by the finest laboratory filter. It was finely Isolated by a chemical test which shows it crists, even though the most powerful microscope will not reveal it to the eye.

In the test, three chemicals are added to the specimen. If the gerin, or virus, is present, a colour appears which ranges in depth from pink to a brownish hue. How this relieves the tedium of the work can be seen by· considering the procedure used at the beginning to test for the presence. of the ren in the specimen,

is

Volunteers were obtained among inmates of the Lawton Reformatory, near Washington, D. C. The first step was to obtain a culture, or speci men, Streptomycin and penicillin, to which the cold virus is impervious, were added, keeping out germs not concerned in the test. The researchers then sprayed the nasal passages of the subjects with the mixture and put the men in hospital-type quarters to await developments,

It is now believed possible that some disease viruses may be latent in men, causing no apparent harm until started on destructive work by some stimulus, And it may be that victims of constant colds are allergic to certain things, like a hay fever sufferer affected by ragweed.

SEVEN DAYS

36fact the earE

of Le