page 42 Jackson hab Look GRANTLAND RICE'S FOOTBALL FORECAST Cancer's No. 1 Enemy SEPTEMBER 14, 1948 Jackson Lab 15 THE CHANGING FEMALE FIGURE page 69 Look PICTURE PERSONALITY ROSCOE MEMORIAL B. JACKSON Clarence Little examines Jackson Laboratory's most aristocratic mouse. It traces back 210 generations. RESEARCH LABORATORY IN CANCER AND GENETICS VISITING HOURS EXCEPT SATURDAYS T04:30 DAILY AND SUNDAYS CANCER'S NO.1 ENEMY It took a Maine disaster to spotlight Clarence Little's research center - which has discovered more about heredity and cancer than any other laboratory in the world By HAROLD B. CLEMENKO C LARENCE COOK LITTLE is one of the world's ally famous genetics center. The next it was out of the car. For a few moments he stood leading figures in the fight against cancer. a crazy jumble of ashes and ruins-fifty years there quietly, just looking-at all that was left For years his Jackson Memorial Labora- of Little's lifework destroyed in fifty minutes of the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory tory at Bar Harbor, supplying science with a of a Maine forest fire. In 18 years of operation, it had built a col- million and a half experimental mice, has Next morning, Clarence Little talked a lection of 90,000 rodents, including the oldest been the very foundation of all cancer research state trooper into letting him drive past the recorded strains in the world. One strain went with mammals. boundary line into what was still considered back 210 generations to the year 1907 when But one night last October, the Laboratory the danger zone of the fire. Little had first become interested in mice gen- burned down. Not far down the road, Little, a tall, gray- etics. The year 1907 for mice is the same as One moment it had been an internation- ing man, found what he was seeking, and got tracing human ancestry back to 2252 B.C. (Continued on page 45 42 CANCER'S NO. 1 ENEMY continued Jackson Laboratory maintains a farm annex to track down another enemy of mankind: the social cancer In those thousands of burned records, and 30,000 reprints must be replaced. And cancer in the bodies of those suffocated mice, might research has been slowed for years to come. have been the long-sought answer to cancer. That's why Dr. Clarence Little is in such a Little stooped, picked up a blob of microscope frantic hurry. specimen plates, now fused into a meaningless His Jackson Memorial Laboratory has had pattern of junk. The day before, his mind had enormous influence since its establishment in been on retirement. Now, as his eyes swept the 1929 for the twofold purpose of research in smoldering embers of a useful life, he was genetics and the mass reproduction breeding thinking: How are we going to rebuild this of laboratory mammals to be used by other laboratory-better than ever? leading scientific institutions. "And the whole thing has been done on a financial shoestring- Mice Cast on the Waters with boundless loyalty," says Little. Forty-eight hours after the disaster, his friend J. Anthony Probst got through to him Jackson's Cancer Discoveries on long distance phone from New York. What have they discovered at Bar Harbor "Hello! Pete!" came Probst's voice, alive in the search for the cancer cure? Technician harnesses radio-inductograph on with concern. "Are you all right?" They are now able to start and stop ad- a Basenji, an African breed. Transmitter al- Back came Little's voice from Bar Har- renal cancer in mice. lows study of dog without man being present. bor: "Jack, it was terrible. I spent all day yes- They have discovered that breast-feeding terday on our plans to rebuild." mice can contract cancer from their mother's Three days after the fire, research at Jack- milk, lending support to the virus theory of son had been resumed. The next day, mice cancer. well publicized as hearty enough to come shipments were going out again. And Clarence They have been able to control living ma- through Bar Harbor's worst night, died from Little was in New York to plan how to raise terial so that they can predict whether or not the effects soon after or proved to be sterile. funds for the new buildings. it will have cancer. Geneticist at Three You understand this frenzy for rapid re- They have proved that Mendel's law of The man behind this vast study will be construction when you hear Little say, "The heredity is not the only parental influence on 60 in October. But he has been infatuated night Jackson burned down, mice cancer re- offspring. search almost stopped. One hundred and fifty And they can predict and control the suc- with genetics, the biological study of heredity cess or failure of transplantation of tissue, and variation, for the past 57 years. When major cancer labs in this and other countries, Little was a three-year-old in Brookline, which depended upon us for mice, were forced whether it be cancerous or normal tissue. Mass., his mother, a direct descendant of Paul to cease operations. I was ashamed. We simply had to deliver." Fighting Social Cancer Too Revere, gave him a gift of two pigeons. At Suddenly, all the laboratories which had Besides Jackson's 30,000 mice, it has seven, he had bred a pair that took first prize in a show. About then, he became interested been Little's customers started pouring mice added in the past three years 50 cats, 125 dogs, shipments back into Bar Harbor-mice of all in mice and, by the time he was a Harvard 1,000 rabbits, 100 hamsters, 100 guinea pigs sizes and ages and strains-mice to get Jackson and a herd of goats. But with new litters arriv- undergraduate, was breeding special strains of mice. These are the progenitors of the line started again. Today, less than a year after the ing daily, these figures cannot be regarded fire, Jackson has 30,000 mice. with the same composure as those of the U.S that is 210 generations old today. Wherever Little's career took him there- But it's no happy ending by any means. Census Bureau. All these animals are kept at Many irreplaceable and unique mouse genes "The Farm," which is the Hamilton Station after, the mice went along. In 1902, as a young have been destroyed, a vast collection of annex of the laboratory in Salisbury Cove. student steeped in the Mendelian law, Little microscope slides is gone, 40 years of data and Here the scientists are studying the causes began to believe that science could stand some and effects of another kind of human illness: revisions in its ideas on the harm of inbreed- the social cancer. How much of what we are is ing. He theorized that inbreeding could be heredity? How much environment? What are applied to cancer research by producing pure the causes of our various forms of social be- strains with no hereditary variability. By havior? What makes us fight, fear, hate, perse- eliminating the heredity factor, certain ob- cute, lead or follow? served developments could then safely be at- tributed to environmental factors. The "Ferocious" Rabbit That's when the idea of Jackson Labora- One of the Farm's inbreeding experiments tory was born in Clarence Little's mind. The has produced a fierce rabbit-the "man-eating Lab would provide a place to develop pure rabbit" one newspaper account gleefully strains for research. called it. Was Youngest University President This animal, after an angry existence spent in gnawing on the bars of its cage, or When, after World War I, at 34, he became sinking its teeth into any object extended president of the University of Maine, he set within reach-including a keeper's arm-was up next to his office a laboratory for the de- placed in a group of normal friendly rabbits. scendants of his inbred mice. In 1925, the For a day or two, it was a veritable Dead End youngest university president of his time ac- kid among them. But then, apparently influ- cepted the same position at Michigan. And off enced by the sweetness-and-light of the sur- to Ann Arbor went Little and his mice. rounding community, it softened up and But by 1929, his major interest finally won became gentle. Which, of course, is the plot of through as he became managing director of any Boys' Town movie you'd care to name. what is now the American Cancer Society. The Farm also includes among its inhab- There, in 1936, he conceived the idea that itants hop-less rabbits, bark-less dogs, cats early cancer? was after all a personal and in- with four ears or too many toes and sensation- timate thing which could best be detected early ally colored cats. by the person who had the symptoms. If Mice, too, are useful in the search for so- symptoms could be made recognizable to the cial cancers as inbreeding develops their vari- public, many cancers could be stopped early ous strains. There are the neurotic mice, the in the game when they were most conquerable. This is the 211th generation, just arrived. mice who die at the ringing of a bell, and the Little was convinced that women would be The five mice in this litter are five days old. "burnt"-almond mice who actually survived interested in helping an educational program They cannot hear and eyes are not yet open. the fire. The latter breed, however, though to promote this idea. He persuaded women's (Continued an next page) 45 "Even / can be an expert CANCER'S NO. 1 ENEMY continued with this G-Elroner!" says Art Linkletter Research assistant Mary-'Vesta This is the "ferocious" rabbit, pro- Marston brings five-weeks-old duced at the Lab by inbreeding. beagle pups to observation room. He bites everything within reach. Little's cancer control idea has already rescued thousands organizations to establish the teenagers who have shown an ap- Women's Field Army for Cancer "Nothing like sitting down to iron titude for research in their schools. a time-easily! And the heat's automat- Control. Now, there are more than Opportunity for them to meet top in comfort-especially when it's a G-E ically controlled for each fabric. I hear a million volunteer workers in this minds in research at this stage of Flatplate Ironer! the 300 square inches of flat ironing sur- country, many of whom were per- their careers will be of great value "Never knew I could do such beauti- sonally taught by Little at the face are equal to 11 hand irons no to them and to science. Field Army Training School which ful work (if I do admit it), and you can wonder you can get through so quickly! he engineered, and in which he He Needs Money do same! For thisironer does the most "This ironer folds into a nice-looking gave lectures and led discussions. Dr. Little has been trying to professional job possible in any home. The proof that Little's idea has raise $1,500,000 to rebuild and cabinet that's really convenient, too." been successful is provided by maintain this world cancer re- "Look-you can do two flat pieces at Model AF 12. physicians who say that more and search center. His friends think more people are coming early to this figure too modest. For after have suspicious lesions examined achieving his present goal, he does and treated. Probably thousands not intend to return to the public of people alive today were saved with another appeal. from death by Little's idea. "There has been more progress made toward the cancer cure in What Little Really Wanted the last 20 years than in all the But even this work was not quite past history of medicine," Dr. Lit- right for Clarence Little. The sci- tle told me. "But if somebody finds entist in him had yet to triumph the cure for cancer tomorrow, our over the administrator. What Lit- laboratory will still have much of tle wanted was a laboratory in its work ahead. Ours is general which he could devote himself to biological, not exclusively cancer, the task he considered most im- research. What we are learning is De Luxe Automatic Rotary Ironer- Fold-away Automatic Rotary Ironer- portant: the utilization of genetics important, too, in the fight against You'll certainly enjoy "sit-down" ironing in the search for the cancer cure. the other killers: leukemia and A beautiful, full-size ironer that's a perfect with this finest-of-all rotary ironers! For Little, the answer came yellow fever, polio and t.b., heart example of General Electric's fine quality. from a fellow summer resident on disease. Our various strains of You can set your own pace with the two Automatic hand or knee control, single Maine's Mt. Desert Island, Roscoe mice will teach us much about speeds, and you'll find you turn out smooth, speed. And the 26-inch roll is grand for all B. Jackson, then president of the immunity from these ills finished work on everything-sheets, table- your ironing. The lapboard protects your Hudson Motor Company. Jackson cloths, shirts, and dresses! Extra-large 30- lap from damp clothes. End shelves keep set out to back Little's laboratory Another Explorer inch roll, easy hand or knee control. Folds wide pieces off the floor. Two heat con- plans, and when the motor mag- He looked out the window. Out- into table top. Model AR 20. trols. Model AR 19. nate died of a sudden heart attack, side the bleak charred landscape his family finished, as a memorial, and dead embers of the forest fire the laboratory Jackson had started. stretched to the sea. He smiled, Automatic Portable Rotary Ironer- Edsel Ford, Richard Webber and "You know," he said, "one of the Here's a popular, lightweight ironer that other important men also con- few good results of the fire is that fits into any size laundry! tributed generously to the insti- we are all getting a lot of broader So easy to carry, you can iron wherever tution. views around here that we were you want. And whatever you iron turns Today, Little is not content with never able to see before because of merely rebuilding Jackson; he is out perfectly! Fine for flat pieces, shirts, the trees and thick foliage. Take developing it as a whole new gen- this. office for instance. I could dresses. Hand or knee control, single speed, etics center for all of experimental never see the water from this win- 22-inch roll. Model AR 18. General Elec- medicine. Its 450,000 square feet dow. Now, right out there, you can tric Company, Bridgeport 2, Conn. will more than double the old see Frenchman's Bay - the very space. Additional units at Jackson spot where Champlain anchored in will house visiting scientists from 1605 when he made his voyage of Enjoy "sit-down" Ironing with G-E all over the world who may study discovery up this way." contribute while they enjoy Bar He smiled, and went on: "Yes, FLATPLATE and ROTARY IRONERS Harbor's summer weeks. Besides there must be no break in the the existing colony of graduates search for truth. And those who and medical students, there will follow me here must never be GENERAL ELECTRIC also some day be space for brilliant ashamed." END 46