New-York tribune., 1907-09-04
" APES And LEPROSY."
Physician Says InoculatiOn Erper'-
nrents Will Fail.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Relative to the subject alluded 20 IN your
quotation from THE Hawaiian Gazette" in rhis
mornings Tribune. Apes and Leprosy." and the
ncesfbfIi.v Of obtaining a curative serum against
that disease BY blood incubation experimentation
allow me the observation that II has already been
tried and found wanting. Kitasato miseraoly failed
with this theory in Japan with red faced monkeys
as Prfnkerhofr doubtless Will with the chinpanzaS
at Molokai- The science in it. If there IS any az
ALL is unsound for Ieprosy IS incurable disease
or IL II is curabIe at all. is so only after many
years and therefore the immunity stage VIII not
be reached in time make the antitoxic serum
practicable
The immunity stage Of diphtheria and OF the
other diseases where antitoxins have awaited IS
soor reached Thus. a protective vaccine IS pro-
durable But IN Ieprosy it is the The pro-
posed Experimentation therefore. must result
nothing as did Kitssato's The opsOnic index OF q
Ieper will be raised any more by blood OF
monkeys previously tnocUlated with blood from a
Ieper than IL was by Infection with horse serum
goat serum and asses serum from animals prevt-
ously inoculated with leper's blood
II is the immunity acquired by transmission
OF the disease through the animal which must
seek and this cannot be obtained through TIC
p-irnates Kitasato solved that and he and Beh-ing
had worked together the diphtheric and tetanio
vtruses in Berlin. The leper bacillus must be cUl-
tivated obtain alternating immunity TO find its
arttoxin: and If this does naturally result IN
man. II hardly be made 70 result IN another
prinste- The leprous toxin which alone results
can never be a Gre for IeprCsy. Brinkerhoh. OF
Nolokaf IS chasing moCnshfne.
The scientific investigation OF this subject
o,,fres in my opinion. accurate findings as 70 how
long the bacillus will live outside the human body.
natural living carriers. the blood sucking
insects of a 1eper region and their prosenies the
young feas. the mosquitoes Larvae and eggs
The question of transmission non-transuission
OF incubation of Ieper germs the human being
IS dependent solely some opSOnic index. other
wise every human being would become leprous n
mosquito and flea infested Iepsr Ike LoUst-
ana Even after thirty years absence OF the dis
ease from AbbeviIIe. La. a Dr. Edwards wrote me,
two cases suddenly arose without apparent cause
I'm a house built old leper soil Even
man no one has succeeded in inocuIatns the germs.
Dauiellson tried IL repeatedly on himself and on
forty others unsuCcessfully- Yet We know that
is subject Ieprosy- Nor did Kitasato. with all hi5
experimentation with Ieprosy virus and monkeys.
find out anything OF Importance as to why pr1nlats
man could catch leprosy.
Instead of taking up monkeys for this expert
mentation why not substitute the rat host OF
in every leper country. and which animal know
Perhaps the very disease in rats might give some
immunity if it's germs. supposed 70 be at
tenuated Ieper germs cultivated first outside
the human body In the laboratory The OpsOrtc
index of all lepers might thus be raised. or BY
feeding them with turtle blood. so easy pro-
cure in Hawaii the immune blood va
know of. ALBERT s ASHMEAD. NJ D
New York Sept l. 1897.