Cold Hunting

Professor John J. Abel of Johns Hopkins removed his spectacles and wiped them clean of imperceptible dust. Ecomiums can be embarrassing and he had just received a $195,000 nugget of them from President Francis Patrick Garvan of the Chemical Foundation. The money was of course not for Professor Abel himself. It was to finance research on the cause of the common cold. But in giving the sum to the School of Hygiene & Public Health of Johns Hopkins University, Mr. Garvan had insisted that the fund be called "The John J. Abel Fund for Research on the Common Cold." To that insistence he added: "In asking that the name of your great scientist be connected with this research I am mindful not only of his pre-eminent position and services in science, but more particularly of his outstanding reputation as the man who, perhaps more than any other living scientist today, exemplifies the beneficial application of the science of chemistry to medical problems, which is my abiding interest in such researches as this."

Round was the tribute, and warranted. John Jacob Abel, 70, has added many a stone to the house of human knowledge. His special field has been pharmacology, a branch that he has taught at Johns Hopkins since 1893. His researches led to the discovery and synthetic production of Adrenalin, drug that has a startling therapeutic action on the heart muscles.* It can often cause stopped hearts to beat. Only last year he succeeded in preparing insulin in crystalline form. His crystals seem to be the hormone necessary to maintain normal sugar balance in the body and to prevent diabetes.

In searching for the cause of common colds Professor Abel and his Johns Hopkins associates are attacking a disease (it may be a collection of diseases) that makes every working man lose 1.4 days of his working year and every woman 2.1 days of hers. Four out of ten men get bad colds each year; seven out of ten women get them. The problem is serious. But with $195,000 and with other sums forthcoming if needed, it is certain to be solved. Money can provide support, equipment and leisure for:

Bacteriologists, experts on the habits of germs. Biochemists, experts on life processes.

Clinicians, experts in diagnosing and treating diseases as they occur in individual human beings.

Epidemiologists, experts on the occurrence, treatment and prevention of disease among large groups of peoples.

Pathologists, experts on the nature, causes and course of specific diseases.

Pharmacologists, experts on the preparation, effect and use of drugs.

Physicists, experts on the chemical and physical actions and reactions of the body in health and disease. The other sort of physicists, those who deal with inert matter and motion, may also be called in.

* It exists naturally in the pair of small suprarenal glands located just above the kidneys.