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Show SCIENCE MAT AUGMENT STATURE OF CHILDREN (Chicago Tribune.) Would you like to bo a giant? If you are grown up already it is too lafe; but you may augment the stature of your children, if you so desire, de-sire, by a simple means namely; by feeding them on egg yolks and libitum. libi-tum. Yolk of egg contains a substance called "lecithin," which, as has been newly discovered, is. in the language of the German scientists, a veritable "grow stuff." Fed to human beings or other animals it has a marked tendency to accelerate development of j flesh tissue and bony structure. For I many years past "St. Bernard pups reared for exhibitions at shoe's have ' been systematically stuffed wit!-' ogg.3 I to increase their size, but. though the process was notably effective, nobody I fuspected why. The reason lay simply ! in the lecithin contained in the yolks. I Dr. H. "W. Wiley, the srovernment's chief chemist, and his assistant. Dr. 1 Maxwell, have performed some clabo- j rate experiments with the "grow stuff." So. likewise, have Dr. Koch of the University Uni-versity of Chicago and Dr. Danilewsky of Paris, who have utilized util-ized many kinds of animals, from frog? to chickens, in their investigations. They found that puppies fed with regular reg-ular doses of lecithin not only grew faster than pups reared in the ordinary ordi-nary way, but were stronger, more lively, developed thicker and silkier hair, and seemed to be perceptibly more intelligent. In order to avoid error er-ror as far as possible the puppies" were invariably taken from the same litter, some being dosed and others not, and, apart' from the special treatment. 'were brought up under exactly the same conditions. Dr. Danilewsky found the tadpoles dosed with lecithin grew much faster than pollywogs which did not have the treatment, while frogs' eggs placed in water containing one fifteen-hundredth part of the smbstance gained in fifty-four fifty-four days 300 per cent more in weight than other eggs of the same batch in ordinary water. In other words, the lecithin eggs grew four times as fast. Similar results were obtained by Professor Pro-fessor Shinkishi Ilatai of the University Univer-sity of Chicago. Dr. Koch tried the "grow stuff" upon guinea pigs and rats. Having boiled the lecithin in distilled water to make it sterile he administered it to the animals ani-mals through the mouth and by in- ; jecting it beneath the skin in differ- . ent series of experiments. The ani- . mals under trial were invariably of the same litter, were fed on the same -kind of food (a plain vegetable diet Df corn, carrots and cabbage), and were weighed every two days. Taking in average it was found that the , lecithin rats grew 60 per cent faster , than the rats reared in the ordinary . way, and it was about the same with " the guinea pigs. The results obtained by Dr. Koch in- licated that ihe "grow stuff" worked , better when given by the mouth than vhen administered hypodermically. rhls ought to be considered fortunate, nasmuch as children, if their growth ( s to be encouraged by such means, i will find it much easier to swallow the doses than -to take them in the other way. Dr. Danilewsky found that doses given once in five hours ; served the purpose with young chick- i ene, the development of which was i markedly accelerated by the medicine; 4 but as yet- the trials have not been J extended to babies, and much remains to be learned In regard to the best method of treatment for growing boys 4 and girls. i One of the most interesting conclu siens drawn by Dr. Danilewsky is that i lecithin acts upon the brain. Indeed, it seems to be actually a brain food. Il 4 influence as a stimulant is exerted di- rectly upon the blood, which is thereby caused to deposit the materials- that build the bones and- other tissues of ; the body. Of course, all the material -that goes to make growth is originaliy in solution in the blood, from which it is deposited in the form of bone, mus- j J cle tissue, etc. If, while growth is still going on. the rate of deposition can be 4 accelerated the human being or other 4 animal will grrow faster. Apparently J this is the way in which the lecithin J works, by stimulating formal growth. 4 Lecithin is defined " by Dr.' IT. W. j Wiley as a , fat, in .which- phosphorous has replaced part of the hydrogen. In t simple language, it is an organic com- 4 pound of phosphorous.. 'While eg? yolks contain an extraordinary per- J centage of it, it is found also in seeds, wherein it is stored to furnish material I 4 for the growth of the embryo plant just as in the egg it helps the develop- J ment of the unhatched chick. It is, in J fact, nature's own "grow stuff," and occurs wherever food is stored for the use of the embryo .plant or animal. J From it. Dr. Wiley says, we mainly derive the phosphorous which helps to nourish the" brain, nerves and other tissues of the body. Drs. Wiley and Maxwell have per- . formed some interesting experiments with eggs to find out what becomes of the phosphorous in the lecithin of the J yolk. Jt was a difficult problem of chemical analysis, but its solution proved that during the process of in- cubation the organic phosphorous of T the lecithin is transformed into the In- organic phosphorous of the bones of the & chick. This was ascertained beyond J question by analyzing first the fresh J egg and afterwards analyzing- a newly a hatched chicken. The process by which a human being i or other animal grows is something of a mystery and nobody knows why de.-velopment de.-velopment comes to an end at a certain stage of life. It is supposed that an alligator continues to grow throughout , its entire life, .and the same may be true of some other reptiles, but the ?" growth period of a mammal is usually m limited to about one-fifth of the term J of its natural existence. If development i" during that period can be accelerated the size of the animal at maturity wni be greater. Hence it is thought that pi children judiciously dosed with lecithin K may in this way be made to grow tall-er tall-er and more muscular. Perhaps, in-deed, in-deed, by this simple means wo may yet be able to create a race of giants, such rt as the people described in the story of H. G. Wells, who owe their enormous p.- siae to a wonderful food. fcJ M |