Show f i f6yt ? j 1 m3? 2U r S iiriip mtiirr WHtW 4 knfrMlifea THE SALT rt -? 5 s i " fn-njaf- iiwflijti6ti L1IE TRIBUTE iriaUfe Tv fV Ht i if 7 f rr-ff- ssitUbilajg S5fcA SUNDAY MORNING MAT 22 1932 § w:t syfYyfY" f :Y i And Why Medical Scientists Spent Years Cultivating This Particular Insect to Aid 7 hem in Studying the Effects v of Drugs on the Human U System MULTIPLE V The Amazingly Complex Construction of - the Transparent Daphnia Hea’i One and Only Eye la Portrayed Above The Multiple Lensea Enable the Microscopic Marine Scavenger to Seo in All Direction at the Seme Time t t Thi Graphic Drawing Illustrate How the Dangerous Communicate the a Dreaded Bubonic Plague Germ to the Arm of a Human Victim I 1 say can buy a grown Con- without them sequently fisheries and individual fish growers the world over are interested in all daphnia breeding attempts It is an ironic trick of nature that daphnia which ars so useful have an that you first-cla- ss elephant these days for $5000 There Is a certain microscopic flea however that is estimated to be worth more than twice that sum This tiny creature is not a super-sta- r performer m some prosperous flea circus as one would naturally suspect It is called the transparent daphnia flea and is a serious minded insect completely devoted to the interests of This I How the Transparent Daphnia Look science Originally the daphnia Under the Microecope Science Ha Found Dr Arno was translucent the Tiny Organism' Invaluable for Viehoever of the Philadelof Pharmacy Dicorering the Effect of Narcotics phia College and Science devoted five Upon the Human System years to developing it to its state window-glas- s present human body react so far a is And ten of transparency known exactly as do those of dollars is declared to be a very moderate estimate of the cost of developing the daphnia this type of flea to lte present state And science has discovered f usefulness to medical researchers no other transparent creature so fact the lies in to science value Its small In sice that Illustrates so that it Is the only transparent creature in the world that possesses all of roan’s clearly under magnification the vital organa Dr Viehoever and his workings of the wonderfully essenassociates have found the insect complicated human system Maktial to their work of determining the ing the daphnia flea transparent system by selective breeding enables help or harm done to the human Dr Viehoever and his colleagues by the administering of chloroform to make a detailed study of the strychnia digitalis and other narcotics d used In medical operations organ not only is separately but also in relation They place the daphnia which of an inch in to each other to It is also hoped that these and length between two small glass plate other experiment on flea A bit of linen is tucked all around the species will enable man to conflea to avoid crushing it The plate g quer the bubonic plague in are then placed before a powerful which time This dreadad disease is machine projecting throws the image of the insect upon a carried by rat fleas 'who absorb the germs and then comlarge screen municate them to human When all is in readiness Dr Viet adbeings Melkon Bernard hoever’ assistant Once the bubonic plarue I ministers a drop of diluted solution of started in a community it chloroform and at emee the observers ireada as though by magic tee the tiny mite’s branched antennae Ien women and children drop which usually work funously calm in the street die while sleeping down At the same time the infiniUnder the iimani- or working tesimal heart of the daphnia which tarv condition of other days mina beats 250 of rate the pulses at entire towns have been wiped ute also slow down out by this terrible plrague A second drop of the chloroform soModem methods have done lution causes the heart to become so much to diminish the ravage of debe can movement still scarcely the bubonic plngue —also widetected Strychnia works the other way ly known as the "black death” a of As soon as the tiniest fraction —but wiping out the disease deto the pends largely upon the remits drop of this drug is appliedat a fun-oudy of experiments now being made daphnia’ little body It move increased speed The antennae on fleas in various world medical centers fly all about like flails the heart Th ordinary translucent pump convulsively and every muscular to flea little quicken function of the daphnia flea neither valuable nor rare It Is found In huge a wild rate numbers In fresh watr lake One by one the other narcotic are pond and puddles all over tha then given the flea and Its reactions t them in great Finn world are noted The important thing about these teats is that the organ of the quantities and aome authorities min- nows cannot be Rat-Fle- I XPERT'S Wl V I SxSS believe that fully-grow- n unhappy whether time they live in their natural state or In the tanks of medical experimental laboratories The regular lift function Is of the scavengdaphnia ing They keep the waters In which they are bora every three or four days Tha flea achieves matur- dweU free from scum In turn they are victimised by a host of enFish the aouatic earthworm emies and even the protozoa eat the young daphnia Rotifers the most conspicuous species of marine miniature life are inexorable foes These minute creature have powerful pincer-ltk- e jaws with which they attach themselves to the helpless squirming fleas and overcome them And now the daphnia which hava been made transparent have no secrets from the probing eye of th medical laboratory men Another factor which make the daphnid —as a single flea of the specie is called— a splendid subject ior narcotic resesrch work is it astonishing vigor and vitality It can be subjected to great heat and till live Placed in an atmosphere cold enough to give chilblains to if not to freeze every other living organism it never quivers an antenna The daphnid has a prominent beak not unliks a nose hut no legs or arms The flea’s body is covered bv a bivalve shell and the skin of this shell contains a protective substance usuallj found In insect wings This coat le shea very three days during the life of ths tiny w insect The dapnnld lives but thirty days and in that abbreviated span is bom comeg to maturity and brings its young into the world sometimes leaving countless descendants It is not uncommon for a brood to contain fifty daphnia Large broods one-cell- th Cross-Sectio- n Drawing Shewing the Complexity of the Flea' Internal System Astonishing movement of these mueclee in digestion In addition to its indifference to heat and cold and it recovery from th administering of drugs the daphnia g and undertriumphs over nourishment It is in reality an "iron man" in miniature If ever there is invented an immachine proved version of the that can make the human body as visible as that of the daphnia medical science will perhaps be able to conquer all disease For instance in Dr Logan Clenden-nlng- ’s interesting book “The Human Body" is told the story of an American Indian who suffered an abdominal gunshot wound The hole never healed completely and by passing meat on a string through this strange gap a pioneer doctor wa able to determine much about the digestive system that was never known before To the world’s amazement it was learned that the stomach gastric juices would dissolve this meat in much the same manner as they did food taken in the natural way Strangely enough tha Indian who suffered the unique wound lived in good health for years over-feedin- X-r- eye-lens- drug-effecte- V ity in from five to ten days according t o Ten temperature days Is the limit despite a t mospheric conditions A fascinating feature of th daphnia is its eye Study of this organ of the flea incalculable value to science By using its optic in drug experiments the researchers have been able to check up on the effects of various narcotics on the human eye The flea has one eye only the fusion of it two natural ones This single eye is stalked Arranged around a little more than half its circumference are round multiple lenses Each of these possesses the faculty of sight Actually these lense compose an intricate compound eye The organ is pulled this way and that by these powerful muscles situated on each side of the complicated optic The curious physical workings of these musclee in connection with th various lenses enable the flea to turn the organ so that he can look at th back of his own neck This amatlng eye gives the flea much protection a it can “spot’’ marine foes immediately no matter from what direction they come It alao aids the daphnia In its ceaseless quest for sustenance The eye is of astonishing size In relation to the rest of tha body and the pigment that fills ths ball I brilliant The two pairs of head appendanges — the antennae — ere also comparatively large The length of these antennae and the size of the muscle as well as the length and the number of their bristles determine the insect's locomotion Tha scientists say that the creatures with smaller antennae hop about by more numerous and less vigorous strokes Strangely enough however the movements of all tha species are unsteady and somewhat rotating How the eye develops alao contributes to the character of the locomotion If few of make their appearance the the daphnid will hop about in circles I esThe digestive system of these fleas is on feature that has fascinated research workers The transparency ef the stomach and intestinal tract which have a wall of striped muscle clearly reveals the peristalsis or Involuntary one-tent- h mag-mfym- 1 v v M Bunt Marine Insert Arthur ef Ue Carnegie Institution Fmtnlng Strange Specie Almost All known rirllc of U ater I lee Dwell in the Mottle Shown Altov a la t stun IratiwU tea in ef Here I Dr Arno Viehoever the Brer Jr r end Discoverer of the IWful Transparent Deplinte Operating a Itarording Maililne on Mhih the 1 loa'a Heartbeat VI a Amplified 1500000000 Times |