Show w J Ir Ira a a Child L 0 Or G P f n ma i r it a Ui I a 1 F Fa M t Nt J a Owen Wister blister the Famous F amous- amous NY ia Novelist Pleads for the Right of Medical Science to Go Goon on Lessening Disease 7 p i is and Suffering and Pro Pro- Prolonging Prolonging 4 longing Life Through f a F Its Experiments Experiments y 0 1 T rr t on o n Animals ij I I 7 J 1 I t f f t 1 H t 4 1 y I 1 k f J r 1 i t N 1 Making X Xray ray photograph of ofa a can Y t ceroua guinea pig in the hope of shedding takesi y rr F new light on the dread disease that takes t i such sucha a toll among animals as well I I o d db b Examining the condition of guinea pigs r b that are being fed exclusively on dried milk r s r ro powder in order to help decide how good gooda a such food is for human hman babies Below laboratory in the Pasteur Institute Paris whose achievements in the savin- savin r s as y of human lives are largely the of experiments on a i 1 ming a guinea pig preparatory to e extracting from It a serum for the treatment of human disease i e o f M l By OWEN WISTER the ther theS r FOUR men in the United SIXTY FOUR S States military service in Manila lJ recently offered their bodies for experimentation relating to the trans trans- transmission transmission transmission mission of dengue fever by mosquitoes The heroism which these men exhibited has not received any expensive public notice tut but the official reports tell teU the story of valiant sacrifice for the sake of humanity Of the who permitted themselves to be be- be bitten by suspected mosquitoes one fifty actually contracted the disease with Its distressing fever mental depression physical prostration and persistent pains with slow convalescence convalescence convalescence cence Their suffering however was not in vain yain for as a result of the ex- ex experiments ex experiments it was demonstrated that dengue fever is transmitted by a certain mosquito and that once it becomes capable of transmitting the virus to human beings it retains retain the power to do so for the rest of its life The charge is sometimes made that man is perfectly willing to use animals for experimental purposes in medical science but that he will not himself undertake the risks of suffering and pos pos- possible possible pos possible sible death In order to aid medical research re research search and thereby help to alleviate h his own ills It Is refreshing therefore to encounter instances now and then show show- showing showing ing how baseless and unfair this charge is Ia The Havana experiments with yel- yel yellow yellow yel yellow low fever ever furbished fu another remarkable instance of the same kind It was in the summer of 1900 that a commission of four army surgeons was appointed to pursue scientific investigations investigations with reference to yellow fever The commission consisting of Dr Walter Wal Walter ter Reed Heed Dr James Carroll Dr Jesse Jesso JessoW W Lazear and Dr Aristides Agramonte set out to Investigate this problem in scientific manner They chose as the scene of their studies Systematically they set tet out investigating ing lag the possible theories of the tho s sion of this dreaded disease They cam to the i t could it really be th mosquito Some preliminary expert experiments ments menta in which Dr Lazear and a had lost their lives had already been car carried vied ried on with infected mosquitoes The determined to pursue this st study dy further cost what hat it may The first to volunteer for or the expert went ment were John R Kissin Kissinger er and Joh J Moran These Thele men offered the bodies to death in the hope bope that this the world might be made safer fo living men The danger and which the experiments involved fully explained to them by the head o the commission Dr Reed who also alao in Famous Novelist J Z ormed formed them that they t would receive financial remuneration remuneration re- re for their servo ices This both of them declined de- de declined 1 Y dined to accept whereupon where where- y upon Major Reed touching r I s his cap said Gentlemen f I fI salute you i iOn On December 6 b 1900 1300 five contaminated mOqui- mOqui mosquitoes toes were selected and these p were allowed to bite the subject Kissinger with wit the result that three days later 1 he was seized with a chill that proved the beginning I of a well marked case of yellow fever Dr Reed Red in commenting commenting on this experiment experiment experiment ment wrote In my opinion this exhibition of moral courage has never been R surpassed in in in the annals of r the army of the United States The evidence pointed to the mosquito as the guilty fw agent of transmission but the commission was deter deter- determined determined mined to exhaust by thor thoro thorough a ough investigation every possible possible theory To ascertain ascer- ascer asters t s f tain tamn tain whether yellow fever leveris is transmitted by a contagion in the the discharges or clothing of patients a frame building thor thoro thoroughly protected against mosquitoes but poorly ventilated dark and hot was set aside Dr Robert P Cooke and Privates Folk and Jernigan volunteered to remain in this extremely uncomfortable uncomfortable able bedding place daily unpacking garments and bedding used by yellow fever pa patients sent from the ho hospital spreading and shaking out the blankets and sheets and sleeping in them This they con con- continued continued for twenty days enduring the stench and discomfort as well as the sup sup- supposed supposed posed risk riak of infection Later an experiment was made to find out whether yellow fever infection can be carried by the tho blood of a n patient and transferred to another person Private Jernigan who had already come through exposure to the tho bites of infected mosquitoes mosquitoes mos- mos mosi i had blood from a yellow fever patient injected into his veins By their sacrifice these experimenters experimenters i L proved forever that it was in the bite of the bodied black-bodied silver striped Ste L that the secret of yel yel- yel yellow low fever lay The problem then was to eliminate this particular mosquito and by 1910 it bad had been so well solved t that Cuba was wu entirely freo from the tho scourge of yellow fever iA ry n Q- Q s I- I Ik k I k Ik x J F J Why was it necessary to carry out such dangerous experiments on human beings The answer is that some dis- dis diseases diseases dis diseases eases are peculiar to man and that animal experimentation in such cases though often helpful is not adequate The opponents of animal experimentation experimentation tion seem to lose sight of this significant fact They a assume ume without justification tion that man does not offer himself for experimental tests involving serious dis- dis discomfort discomfort dis discomfort comfort and danger to life and from that untenable premise they insist that he has not the moral right to subject animals to experimentation The facts of course belie this contention as the tho Manila and Havana and countless other instances so eloquently attest The conquest of v fever of typhoid fever cf ct diphtheria and of other communicable and pestilential dis diseases ases the development of painless surgery the tho discovery of specific remedies for dis- dis diseases die dis diseases eases once considered incurable have practically all come como during the past halt century Abruptly after 2300 years a change began Anthrax in France ceased to be bea bea bea a scourge of sheep it fell away enough to have ha paid on healthy sheep Frances France's indemnity to Germany in 1870 In the same country chickens ceased to be de- de destroyed destroyed de destroyed in thousands by the poultry 1 lit br q 1 Y i Ry ro ros I s r l J cholera Presently thes the s f bite bito of a mad dog could be rendered i harmless Soon after the operation for ap ap- ap apt t unheard of during twenty-three twenty i centuries of medical history became a com com- commonplace com i s Other lifesaving life J 1 saving caving surgery came crowding upon this T Tumors u m 0 r s growths r e strangled intestines and I Iother other diseases t hat h a t called for operations on the stomach liver gall stones pancreas J spleen kidneys mart lungs and even on the he brain all fatal since Hippocrates aU all were blotted from the terrible list of diseases without hope Hope for tuberculosis was found safety from diphtheria safety from typhoid fever from lockjaw from meningitis from cholera from plague from hydrophobia from puerperal fever sever help in diabetes and very lately the promise of cure for scar scar- scarlet scarlet scarlet let fever and immunity I have not named all aU these triumphs nor shall I 1 Itry Itry try to Suppose that you were hearing about aU all this for the tho first time I 1 think you would ask What is at the bottom of it it Why didn't it happen sooner You would be curious to know the cause of such a tremendous transformation And suppose that you ou also heard forthe for forthe forthe the first time that a man named Pasteur had made some come experiments in France and a man named Lister had mode made that n new treatment of wounds and diseases had bad followed directly from these experiments and that drastic reo re- reductions re reductions in death rates had bad been prat practically contemporaneous with this new treatment Without knowing more than this about it it without having mastered the steps and technical details which led to the new treatment treatment the various shaped specks invisible in visible without a n microscope I c rut lee I It is is as declare the w- w of mec al al alp p w to deny te benefits of animal experimentation as to believe that this thia Siberian medicine man mani can cure disease by byj beating on his big drum that are present in the blood or the pus where there isone is y one of these infectious dis HH UM eases and how bow quickly they Wy multiply and how they can caa- caa be dealt with by a succession sion of wonderful processes in a laboratory until they are modified and transmuted into a cure instead of a without curse without learning any of this technical knowledge would you not be inclined to connect the new treatment with the disappearance or mitigation of diseases which for twenty three cen- cen centuries cen centuries had bad re remained unconquered mysteries mys mys- mysteries mysteries teries Every victory that I have bave named named- named over puerperal fever typhoid fever diphtheria lockjaw meningitis all meningitis these and more mor that I have not named have followed without a solitary exception exception exception tion upon the application of the methods that Pasteur and Lister based upon ani ani- animal animal animal mal experimentation Yet there are aro those If it they had their way who would have kept the list of hopeless diseases from ever being shortened short short- shortened shortened ened who would pass pan laws which would forbid the art and science of healing from ever striking another name from that awful list who would stop ou ot striving to find a cure for such things as infantile paralysis and cancer And aU all this they would do in the name of sym sym- sympathy sympathy pathy for animals I We must not at all forget the good which the protectors of animals have done They have by their humane and enlightened work made the world far more merciful to our dumb beasts than it used to be they have taught all de- de decent de decent cent folk to feel that horses and dogs and cats have their rights and they have made mado those who would wilfully mal mal- maltreat mal maltreat treat them afraid of the law It is Ia not at all aU of these benefactors that 1 I am speaking nor of those who moved by bythe bythe bythe the same merciful impulse created a general sentiment which prevented the futile and senseless excesses in animal experimentation that undoubtedly ex- ex existed ex existed isted at one time The Tho check on this was sane But what about the would-be would check upon animal experimentation in com com- competent competent hands promising new protection to man and beast which is governed by careful and merciful rules and and which almost every year strikes another dreaded item from the list of diseases without hope Shall this be cheeked checked There is still fresh in our memory the discovery disco of insulin for the relief of diabetes It is estimated that in the United States there are now about people who alread already have tilis this t disease will din dia diabetes or develop it it In 1920 betes was responsible for more than deaths The disease results from the defective utilization of starchy foods Because dogs can be fed starch starchy food meat fa faa and any desired combination t l hov v have ten teen en e-en y useful in ex- ex looking toward the relief of this tins serious disorder r In fact practically cally tally all that we know at present about the cause cluse and treatment of diabetes has come through experimentation with dogs dobs The following are arc some sonic of the achieve achieve- achievements achievements ments meats credited to sciences science's experimenters experimenters menters on animals in a list compiled some years ears ago by Dr W W Keen the great surgeon They have discovered and developed the antiseptic method and so have made possible all the wonderful results of modern surgery They have made possible practically ball all modern modern abdominal surgery all the modern surgery of the brain They have made possible a new ear sur surgery gery of the chest including the surgery of the heart lungs aorta esophagus etc They have almost entirely abolished lockjaw after operations and even after accidents They have reduced the death rate after compound fractures from sixty sixty- sixty five five to less than one in They have enormously diminished diminished the i ravages of malaria and ma made fe its abolition tion only a matter of time They have reduced the death rate of hydrophobia from 12 to 14 per cent of persons bitten to less than 1 per cen cent t I They have devised a method of direct I transfusion of blood which has already i saved many lives They have cut down the death rate in diphtheria all over the civilized world I through the introduction of antitoxin They have reduced the mortality of the epidemic form of cerebrospinal meningitis from 75 76 and more per cent to 20 per cent and less They have assisted in cutting down the death rate of tuberculosis by from 30 to 60 SO per cent They have discovered a a vaccine against typhoid fever which has totally abolished typhoid fever in military um They have enormously benefited ani animals mals coals by discovering the causes and in inmany inmany inmany many cases the means of preventing tuberculosis anthrax glan glanders ders dens hog cholera lumpy jaw and other diseases of animals some of which also alo attack man roan Yet in the face of achievements like these there are enemies of human health masquerading as friends of mercy who would hinder the further progress of medical science toward the lessening of disease and t suffering Buffering by prohibiting ex- ex experiments experiments ex experiments on animals During the war when the war council authorized the s c et ex- ex expenditure of by the Red Cross Crossin Crossin Crossin in animal experimentation they brought an injunction suit declaring that al although though the experimenting on animals has bas been going on for many years nothing has been discovered by it that thatis thatIs is at all beneficial to the bum human race race |