Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-06-26
CAN BLEACH NEGROES
Kansas Professor Discovers Bacil-
lus That Makes Albinos.
InoculntiOn with Serum of n Harm-
h less Disease Blnnches the Skim
f." Singular Fact Concerning

appears that the negro's dream is
dbout to be realized. Prof. Marshall
Johnston, of the University of Kan
sas school Of medicine, has discovered
q means whereby he claims to be able
to make the negro ,wnite, reports the
New York journal.
? Briefly set forth, Prof. Johnston's
method consists in inoculating the ne
gro with the serum of leucitis or Albin-
ism, a harmless disease which pro-
duees those strange oddities of nature
known as Albinos. The fact that al
binism is the result of a disease is a
discovery in itself, the credit of which
belongs to the professor.
Albinoes have been regarded for
centuries simply as anomalies of ma
ture, but it has remained for Prof.
Johnston to discover that their con-
dition is the result of a disease-the
white blood disease or leucitis, as the
professor has named the affection.
Leucitis is a disease only in that it
is not a normal condition. AS dis
eases go, the affection could hardly be
called one. 1t resembles badness
somewhat, being only local condition
and in nowise affecting the general
health.
Transmitted to white skinned per-
son, leucitis checks the deposition of
dark pigmentary matter in the cuticle
and gives to the skin pale and sick
ly hue, while the eyes assume pinkish
color.
But upon the darker and thicker
skin of the negro leucitis operates
with great difficulty, and while a
colorless skin is the result of it's work
in a light-skinned person, it's effect
upon the negro is to bleach the skin
only to healthy flesh color"
The odd whitish aspect of the AL
bino's skin is due, according % the pro
fessor, to a deficiency of pigmentary
matter, or coloring substance. For a
long time, however, it was supposed
that this lack of coloring matter was
merely one of the vagaries of nature.
BY chance one day while examining
under the microscope a sample of the
blood of an Aabino who was detained
in the university hospital with a severe
case of typhus fever, Prof. Johnston
discovered that in addition to the ty-
phus bacilli in the blood there were
specimens of strange bacillus, the
like of which he had never seen before.
The discovery set Prof. Johnston to
wondering what the bacillus might be,
and when the Albino had recovered
from the fever he secured another
sample of blood. There were none of
the typhus bacilli in this sample, but
the specimens of the strange bacillus
were still there.
A number were taken from the blood
and placed in a gelatine culture and
incubated. The colony multiplied and
an a few days young guinea pig was
inoculated with a serum made from
the bacili. There was no change in
the general health of the animal, but
inside of a month its pink rosy skin
had turned white and its eyes had
taken on a decided pink hue.
The conclusions were easily drawn,
and the professor announced to his
colleagues, who had been watching
the experiments with great interest,
that the bacillus which had produced
this condition in the pig was the cause
of the Albno's color.
The next subject was patient in
the hospital, an Irish mechanic named
Wilder, who was dying of an incur
able disease. 1t took two months to
affect Wilder, hut within 80 days after
inoculation the man had become an
Albino with pink eyes, white hair and
colorless skin.
A negro was the next to offer him
self for experimental purposes. He
was inoculated, but the doctors found
that the leucitis bacilli had a very diff
ferent effect upon him. His kinky
head covering was unaffected. This,
however, was not wondered at, as the
negro's hair is in reality entirely diff
ferent in structure from that of the
Caucasian. But the negros eyes did
not change color, and although his
skin bleached out, it did not assume
the pale color of the Albino. When it
had bleached TO a color which in a
white person would be light brunette
it held that color, and a heavy post.
tnoculation of the serum produced no
effect. The deep pigmentation of the
negro's skin is held accountable for
this by the professor.