Show keeping up U 3 wi cien e ervi er v i e I 1 0 science service service vitamin D material removed from skin by shower and rub by DR FRANK THONE washington you play a few sets of tennis or toss a medicine ball or take sorn some e other kind of vigorous exercise in the sunshine you come in to the shower feeling full of pep and vitamins you rub yourself down briskly with a rough towel and f feel eel even better but youve lost a good part of the vitamins you have just been acquiring for now it appears that the shower and rubdown that are orthodox parts of the american exercise and health ritual actually remove from the skin some of the stuff that vitamin D is made of this is the conclusion of experiments at the in sti divi thomae in cincinnati performed by agnes C helmer and rev cornelius H jansen in the experiments groups of students after exercising had their bodies above the waist washed with clear water which was all carefully saved and evaporated down the terry cloths claths with which the students dried themselves were also saved the residue from the washing and terry cloths claths was extracted with ether and the material thus obtained subjected to ultraviolet irradiation and fed to rats afflicted with rickets what the athletes lose the detective defective bones of the rats healed up showing that the athletes 61 washings had contained the precursor or raw material for vitamin D which was then converted into the vitamin by the ultraviolet treatment in a second experiment the students were first irradiated with ultraviolet tra violet and the extracts then made in a similar manner the results with rats proved that the washing had removed vitamin D itself from the boys skins in their conclusions the experimenters state there is definite evidence that the secretions from the skin contain precursors of vitamin D which after irradiation are due to be re absorbed by the body and the removal of which tends to produce a dearth of the vitamin unless it be supplied in some other form keep newborn new born baby warm reduce mortality washington keeping newborn new born babies warm after their birth is a SIMP simple le but important way of helping to cut down infant deaths dr horton casparis Caspar ls of vanderbilt university pointed out at the conference on better care for mothers and babies held under the auspices of the united states childrens bureau here before birth the baby has been living in an environment with a temperature of degrees fahrenheit which may be compared to the wilting heat of midsummer an infant especially a prematurely born infant needs to be gradually acclimated cli mated to the temperature of his new environment just as an adult is careful about not getting chilled after a hot bath failure to protect the baby against the change in temperature at birth may be responsible tor for his death protecting the infant from infection and seeing that he gets plenty of water and suitable food are other important measures stressed by or dr Ca casparis |