Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-19
important Discovery Made by
Dr.. w. B. Wherry.
TAKE GERMS FROM RATS
Interesting Experiments Recently
Made in California.
RODENTS FOUND WITH DISEASE
Tests Made Upon Guinea Pigs With
Leprous Bacilli Failed to
Transmit Leprosy.

The highly important discovery has
been made by William B. Wherry. sur
geon of the marine hospital service.
that rats have leprosy and that the
ordinary fly. after feasting upon a dead
leprous rat. will carry and deposit
bacilli of the disease The conclusions
reached are not definite that the fly
transmits the bacilli of rat leprosy to
human beings. but the surgeon is of the
opinion that it is quite possible for the
fly to transmit human leprosy from a
diseased to a diseased person.
DIR. Wherry, in an important report
that has not yet been made public,
quotes noted authorities in expressions
of well-founded belief that leprosy is
frequently acquired through flies. The
insects gather upon the ulcers of lepers
and later bite well persons In one
instance a man who had been bitten by
a fly in a leper settlement noticed the
first outbreak of the disease at the
place where the fly had bitten him.
The inoculations of the fly are small.
but when made under favorable circum-
stances carry leprOus bacilli with them,
1t is believed.
Fliys Deposit BacilH.
The very careful examinations made
by DR.. Wherry at various places in
California seem to confirm the theory
that the fly, after coming in contract
with 1eprosy, will deposit the bacilli of
that disease for several days afterWard.
In the last few months DR.. Wherry ex-
amined 1851 rats at Oakland, Cal, for
leprosy, and found twenty infested with
the disease. some of them in the ad-
vanced stages. One leper rat was found
G a N ~ CT nf nd
blind and defenseless from the disease.
The disease among rats is believed to
be transmitted from one to the other by
the bacilli lying just beneath the skin.
carry the disease from the sick to the
we'll, just as it is now admitted flies do
in cases of typhoid fever
DR.. Wherry used the carcasses of leper
rats to inoculate flies. The carcasses
were exposed to flies in glass jars. After
many flies had collected the jar was
screened. After feeding upon the car
casses the flies soon began to deposit
specks upon the sides of the jars. Ex-
animation in almost every instance show
ed the presence of the bacilli of rat
leprosy. The surgeon found that the
flies took up immense numbers of the
bacilli from the carcasses. When fed upon
livers and other organs of well rats no
bacilli were found.
Tests With Human Lepers.
Dr. Wherry continued his important in
vestigations with human lepers. At the
Alameda county infirmary he captured
two flies from the liberated portion OF
the face of an advanced leper. Within an
hour after the flies had been placed in
Walls the specks deposited by them
showed bacilli of the disease the same
as in the case Of the rats. For many
hours afterward the specks contained
lepra-like bacilli. The surgeon was even
able to count the number of bacilli in
one speck. using the approved methods
for that purpose In one sepck there
were $50 bacilli. Experiments upon
guinea pigs with the bacilli failed to
transmit the disease to these animals.
The conclusions of DR.. Wherry are that
there is no certain evidence that rat
leprOsy and the human disease are the
same, although it is now we'll established
that the plague is transmitted almost
wholly to human beings from rats coming
in contact with food or clothing. The TAX
ing up of the parasites by the fly does
not necessarily mean that the fly also
can carry the disease, but the facts are
given for what they are worth. 1t was
discovered at least that the parasites
do not multiply in flies and that in forty
eight hours the insects are clear of the
bacilli.