The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-09
.ANTHROPOID APES
 AND THE LEPROSY They Will Be Inoculated With the Disease
 at Molokai. AN IMPORTANT WORK The Disease Abating, But It Is Hoped to Learn
 More About It.
AN IMPORTANT WORK

done in order that systematic study of leprosy may be made, that the sci entjsts may be able to watch the course of the disease from Its inception and experiment. upon the subjects at all stages of It's growth.
 The African chimpanzees are of all beasts the nearest to man, nearest in structure, in temperament and in sus- cepGibility to disease, and for this rea- son 1t is that they will be called upon to give up their lives that remedy for suffering mankind may be sought for. They will be exposed to the dis oase in its various forms in order that l degrees of contagion may be learned. They will be inoculated with the ba- cilli and watched, studied, treated ana experimenred with while the disease | develops and in cases they will be painlessly killed, that post-mortem ex- aminations may be conducted and the ravages iof the now incurable sickness on the various functions of the body at it's different stages learned.
 In this way 1t is hoped that a reme- dy may be discovered. Tn this way only can it be hoped that any remedy will be found. The apes experimented upon will die in the best of causes and their deaths will be justified as the one pos- slble way in which there can be any hope of discovering the remedy for the disease most dreaded of all ills that flesh is heir to.
 l nti-vivisectionist may oppose such Experiments upon living subjects It is most probable that they will oppose them, but if there be the least proba- l bility of discovering the serum that will render the bacilli of leprosy innoc- uous the sacrifice of the apes will be | justified. Science has agreed that a remedy can only be found along these lines and along these lines 1t will be l searched for.
 The records Of the Molokai settle ment show that the animals so far talk en there among the lepers have an im- munity from the disease. Dogs and cats live in the lepers' houses unaffect- ! ed, and cattle and horses die there on- 1 ly of the same diseases as elsewhere. The disease does not affect the birds kept in confinement, and rabbits and guinea pigs are kept there as pets and live out their natural lives without the contagion they are exposed to affecting lthem. Recently a number of monkeys have been taken to the settlement, but these have not been there long enough to show whether they, too, are immune. | Neither, so far as can he learned, has | the disease been transmitted to any animal by inoculation, although the experiments made on rabbits and guin- lea pigs throughout the scientific world might have suggested such course in regard to leprosy. Heretofore, however, | there has been little opportunity for any scientific system of experiments at Molokai, except the one fatal case where a human being, man condemn ed to death, submitted himself to inoc- l ulation in preference to going to the scaffold. His case proved beyond argu- ment the possibility of the transmits sion of the disease in this way.
 The use of apes as living subjects for experiments in other diseases has been | l0lLly COlllAlOlit ctS OOIlllllpn elS LIC great expense involved would permit. The great Pasteur experimented with them in his lifes work of discovering the serum for the cure of hydrophobia. Koch, the German savant, worked with apes in his experiments for the deter imitation of the bacilli of tuberculosis, and other lesser scientists have | ,re1,A 1orrr ,asr Ja lao maledictions of the. anti-vivisectlonists for their experimenting with the man brute.
 The one great drawback in the use of apes for such work as is planned to be done at the leprosarium Is, as is stated, the great expense. The apes are to be procured through the American consular representatives fin Portuguese East Africa, and to bring them here will cost the government over $500 fer leach animal. The chimpanzees are af-
 fected more than almost any other an-
 imal with nostalgia, by which term the Iscientists mean homesickness, and
 many of them literally refuse to live in confinement, pining their l ives obN 1iilD dOuS lO lllG ulAACully Oh conducting experiments with them and | also adds greatly to the cost of the ex- periments.
 Dr. Brinokerhoff, the federal medical officer to be in charge of the leprosar- Hum and under whom the experiments will be carried out, purposes devoting a large part of his laboratory to hous- < i,,oa faA t1rHa brought to the settlement, devoting to
 them the entire upper floor of the building. Here they will live, in direct
 touch with the federal physician and his assistants, accustoming themselves
 to be handled, learning to forget their African home in association with the
 humans of the station, gradually ac-
 quiring a confidence in those around
 them, who will do whatever is possible
 to win this confidence. All this while
 the apes will be left in their natura
 healthy condition, neither infected ami.
 nal nor leper being allowed in this
 portion of the Ieprosarium, which is tc
 be the working quarter of the pharma-
 cists and bacteriologists.
 After the apes are inoculated they
 will be placed in a specially prepared
 animal house in the large compound 1T
 the rear of the hospital proper Here
 also will be kept whatever other ami. mals it may be deemed judicious tC
 be used in the systematic and exhaus.
 rive experiments 1t is the intention O.
 Dr. Brinckerhoff to carry on. It is iron the apes, however, that the great re