The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 25

nferoiitQ Opinion Weather Deaths $an Jfranr lor Examiner A section of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner Chronicle Sunday, February 10, 1935 O) YMb mew Bs iifi)j to feeder Scientists hope clue will solve mysteries of autism By Richard F. Harris Examiner science writer Scientists at Stanford University have discovered an intriguing clue about autism suggesting that the severe emotional disorder may sometimes bo caused by tho body's own immune system attacking the brain. Hie research Is so preliminary that scientists are careful not to draw conclusions from it. But It Is the most hopeful lead yet in finding the physical problem underlying some cases of autism, an emotionally crippling syndrome that makes children obsessive and severely withdrawn. The disorder affects one child in 3,000, and less than a quarter of the young victims find some relief through therapy.

"To me it's an exciting finding, but I certainly wouldn't change the way I treated any autistic child based on this," said Dr. Richard Todd, who collaborated in the work at Stanford with Dr. Roland Ciaranello, an assistant professor of psychiatry. Todd has since moved to Washington University in SL Louis, where he is a child psychiatry fellow. The observation Is stirring optimism among psychiatric researchers but also ts drawing cautionary notes.

The hLstory of autism research Is rife with exciting leads that haven't panned out Dr. Irving Philips, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California at San FrancLsco's Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, said the finding Is "very interesting and could be very important" but hastened to add that "it's very important for it to be replicated" at other laboratories. "Like any new finding, the first blush is often very encouraging," he noted. Psychiatrists once thought that autism was a psychological disorder, not -See Page Bl, 1 11,1, I 9i -f i. ir ExaminerMarx Costantml height of a 30-story skyscraper.

The company says it no longer needs the now-empty tanks because of increased capacity in its transmission network and because it can use underground wells in the Delta region instead. Two huge landmarks in landmark-loving San Francisco are about to be torn down, but for once no one will mind. Slated for the; wrecking ball, The Examiner has learned, are two tanks that have blocked panoramic views from Potrero Hill for decades. Plans for getting rid of them are to be announced Friday at a press conference being called by and Assemblyman Art Agnos, at whose instigation the tanks are going. One, on Army Street near Evans Street, was builf in 1923, and stands 221 feet tall.

The press conference will be held at this site. The other, which is shown above and is located at Pennsylvania and 23rd streets, was constructed In the 1950s, and stands 385 feet high, or about the scholars say Liu wrote the book on Taiwan leader Bay Area By Seth Rosenfeld Examiner staff writer Slain writer Henry Liu's unauthorized biography of Taiwanese President Chiang Ching-kuo is a valuable and accurate account that trespassed into forbidden territory, according to Bay Area scholars and others familiar with the book. Liu's book broke a longstanding Chinese cultural taboo by plunging into the personal lives of the president and his late father, former President Chiang Kai-shek, scholars said. It also breached customs under which the young do not criticize the old, especially leaders whose public image is considered sacred. But experts also said Liu produced the first well-documented, unofficial Chinese account of Chiang Ching-kuo and an indispensable behind-the-scenes contemporary political history of his Island nation, which has played a prominent role in US.

foreign policy. This seems to be the first scholarly Chinese biography of Chiang Ching-kuo," said Dr. Maria Hsia Chang, a political science professor specializing it. BB. King sings the commuter blues from S.F.

to Hollywood AtSXl. AstWr K. He was born in mainland China and moved to Taiwan after Chiang Kai-shek's forces were routed by Mao Tse-tung in 1949. There he studied as a political commissar under Chiang Ching-kuo, but became disillusioned and left the military to work as a reporter. Shortly after Liu arrived in the United States in 19G7, he began to research and write articles critical of Taiwan's martial law government and President Chiang Ching-kuo, said his widow, Helen Liu.

She and her husband's supporters ABC affiliate in Sacramento, KOVR, went stereo last week. How do we know? Our friends at Sound Genesis installed the equipment. TAXING PROBLEM Soap star Chris "General Hospital" Robinson may be sentenced March 5, after pleading guilty to misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file federal income tax returns, but that won't keep the amateur archcologist from maintain that he was killed on orders from the Taiwanese government in reprisal for his Just-released, highly critical biography a book Chiang's government had tried to suppress. VS. and Taiwanese authorities have charged two reputed Taiwanese gangsters with the murder.

Taiwan has also arrested three Taiwanese intelligence officials In the case. And the House Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee this week passed a resolution calling on Taiwan to return the suspects charged by U.S. officials to -Sec Page B3, col. 1 showing up at the Antique American Indian Arts Show at Show-place Square in The City, March 1-3. Robinson, who operates the Big Lake Trading Post and Indian Museum at Page, will be among the dealers exhibiting.

If you're not a GH viewer, you might recognize Robinson from his Vicks 44 commercials. "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on television The sjkjIs have been so successful Robinson Is up to hLs ears in other offers. David Bachman, an acting assistant political science professor at Stanford and an expert on China, said Liu's book ostensibly posed no great threat to the popular, aging leader. But it could have implications for Chiang's political allies and for the political future of his son, he said. "It's not, for example, like the Nixon-Watergate tapes," Bachman said.

"It's just that there are parts of his background which have not been given a lot of publicity." Liu, 52, was shot to death Oct 15 in the garage of his Daly City home. selling our house, and it's a new beginning for us as well. I have every confidence that both Michael and the Ballet will both carry on and do very well." NOT QUITE HISTORY-James Gabbcrt, owner of Channel 20, has been appearing on frequent spots jabbering in a rubber-lipped frenzy inviting viewers to make history with KTZO, the first station in California to go stereo on Feb. 20. Sorry, James.

The NV 1 in Chinese politics and a national fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute. "What Henry Liu did was to provide historical evidence that Chiang Ching-kuo had been very Machiavellian, that he used anti-democratic methods to eliminate his opponents and had been responsible for the Jailing of certain opponents," Chang said. "On top of that, he did not spare the president's personal life. In the attitude of the Confucian culture, it's simply unthinkable to point out the faults of the head of state," she said. Examiner photos by Kim Komenich probation officer.

The prosecutor? That's Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Robinson, a Catholic. MARGO GONE It seems Michael Sniuin wasn't the only casualty resulting from Helgi Tomasson's hiring as artistic director of the S.F. Ballet. Margo de Wildt, 10 years on the board, handed in her resignation as well.

"Everybody knows how I feel," Margo told PM. 'The whole situation was the result of growing pains. I was disappointed and thought the decision was premature and handled badly but I think the Ballet Ls in the midst of all kinds of upheaval and that it Just needs time to get itself together. Harry and I are fen 5v V. 7 1 -if -1 I III KING OF THE ROAD-W caught bluesmaster B.B.

King, the hardest-working man in show business, in the Fairmont Hotel kitchen en route to his second show in the. Venetian Room. King had spent the day in LA. working on a film. "It's a John I-andls film with one of those Ghostbuster guys," B.B.

told PM. "They didn't tell me the name of it." Was it Dan Aykroyd or Harold Ramis? we asked. "No, that doesn't sound right," said B.B. trying to remember. Bill Murray? "Yeah, that's the guy.

Nice talking to you. I gotta go to work," he said before ducking through the kitchen and out on the stage. IN THE RAIN Just downstairs from B.B.'s show, Titran into publicist Susan Gentry with set designer Peter Hartman in the Tonga Room, a cross between a Polynesian restaurant and a ride at Disneyland. "I never thought I'd see anyone I knew down here," said Gentry, a little embarrassed to be seen in such a decldely tourist place. "1 Just wanted to show Peter the band in the boat that moves back and forth and the rain and the sound effects." Sure you did, Susan.

"HONEST WAGE -The Old Homestead on 19th and Folsom streets Is going through a lot of new renovations since Buck and Louise Wage took the place over seven months ago. "This place has been here since 1903 and needed extensive going over," Buck told PM. "When Buck showed me the place," said Louise, "I said this Is the place you want to buy? Then I didnt see him for six weeks B.B. King, above, belts out the blues at the Venetian Room. Buck and Louise Wage, at right, celebrate the renovation of the Old Homestead, along with Mary Burney and Peter Horvath while he was fixing it up." The place is a far cry from the former beerand-a-shot Joint it used to be.

There's live Jazz on the weekends, a lingerie show twice a week, and it's the only bar in town where you can get a $2 shocshine while you're having a drink. "We've come quite a way," Wage said. ALL GOD'S CHILDREN Ronald King, a member of the neo-Nazi organization Order who has been charged with conspiring to rob the Brink's cash vault, Is keeping interesting company these days. King's court-appointed public defender is A.J. Kramer, a Jew.

Making a bail study report on King Is Gordon Brown, a black deputy 1.