FORTNIGHTLY BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3, No. 4
A brief report prepared by the Faculty of the Section of Biological Sciences Purdue University at Fort Wayne
November 15, 1971
ALLIGATOR BITES are rare. A successfully treated case and courageous bacteriologic studies are reported. Basic surgical principles and anti-clostridial chemoprophylaxis constitute the optimal care of patients ravaged by alligators. Report of a Case - A 49-year-old farmer complained of having been bitten either by the devil or an alligator. From numerous versions of the event, the following facts are given credence. One hour before appearing in the emergency room, the farmer was returning home on foot from a prayer meeting in a rural island area, on a path which led through a swamp. Suddenly, to the accompaniment of hissing and scuffling on the muddy bank of the path, the patient felt his right thigh locked in the jaw of some large beast. The patient was able to extricate his leg from the apparent alligator by beating it about the head with the family Bible. Debridement, cleansing of the wound, and open drainage resulted in a successful outcome. Psychological trauma was offset by the patient's recent attendance at the prayer meeting and a shot or two of spiritus frumenti en route to the emergency room. Comment - Lack of information about bites of alligators prompted a field trip and bacteriological study. An intrepid group journeyed to a nearby wildlife exhibit to sample the mouths of one small (4-foot) and one large (12-foot) alligator. Members of the group holding lesser academic rank were encouraged to capture and hold open the mouths of the two alligators while the more experienced members obtained bacteria cultures. The alligators were housed in an enclosed swamp, which duplicated their natural habitat. The aerobic and anerobic cultures from these two alligators and from typical swamp water yielded similar Clostridium species enterococci, citrobacter, and others. Omission of antibiotics in this case accompanied the announcement by the patient's relatives that the alligator was being brought to the emergency room. From review of the medical literature, there appears no reason to believe that this type of trauma is either increasing or decreasing, nor do we know of a report of a man biting an alligator. Like Goldsmith's dog it was that died, the ultimate lethal effect was upon the biter, not the bitten. JAMA 218 256 Oct 11 (1971) BB
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PROLONGED EXPOSURE of rhesus monkeys to intense blue light produces long-term changes which are consistent with loss of response of those cones that contain a photopigment with peak absorption at 445 nanometers. The 90% reduction of spectral sensitivity to long wavelengths is produced by adaptation to light at 520 nanometers. This reduced sensitivity, which lasts no more than 30 days, is attributed to a temporary loss of response of the cones containing a photopigment with peak absorption at 535 nanometers. Science 174 520 (1971) BB
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IS IT BETTER on an overpopulated planet to raise plants or animals for food? The laws of thermodynamics provide an interesting insight into this question. Plants alone fix photons. Using the sun's energy, plants produce metabolic products--chiefly molecular oxygen and carbohydrates--whose Gibbs energy is greater than that of the chemical reactants--chiefly CO2 and H2O. Animals, of course, do not fix photons, directly or indirectly. Nor do animals "fix" heat. No agency in nature, plant or animal, animate or inanimate, can do that. According to the empirical laws of nature summarized in the second law of thermodynamics, it is not possible, by any means whatsoever, to produce a net increase in useful, available energy solely at the expense of the thermal energy of an object. All living animals, however, do produce heat. Thus as one moves along the food chain, from plants to herbivores to carnivores, both the enthalpy and the Gibbs energy of the biochemical system (O2, carbohydrates, meat, fat, CO2 , H2O, and other metabolic products) steadily decrease. So if man desires to utilize the sun's energy most effectively, the degradation of Gibbs energy by the intervening steps of milk, poultry, and beef production should be bypassed. The photons reaching the earth from the sun could support more algae-eating than steak-eating humans. J. Chem. Ed. 48 692 (1971) BB
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THE NERVOUS SYSTEM apparently has a mechanism for cell-to-cell transfer of information-bearing macromolecules. Tritium-labeled amino acids and sugars are transported from the retina to the brain's visual cortex within 10 hours. C&E News Nov 8 1971 BB
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