The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-09-30
CLAIM new CURE
FOR LEPR0Sy HAS
Been DISCOVERED
Public Health Service Men
Have Worked Wonders
in Leper Colony.

Washington, Sept. so.-(By The
Agoeiated d Preas1 ,+v since e aarsy hisa
tory. apparently has been conquered
by officers of the United States Pub
lie Health Service in the leper colony
at Kalihi, Hawaii. Forty EIGHT SUI
ferers of the dreaded malady, who
have been subjected to a new method
of treatment, have recovered to such
extent as to warrant their release on
parole, after year, not one has
show symptom Of recurrence.
AS yet, no announcement of
cure" has been made officially for
some of the government medical ex-
perts are frankly skeptical of the re-
suits. 1t may be years before an Of
fcial and final 9pini ntc is s'e c1aim is
SGT forth in a joint report to the
Public Health Service made ny Dr..
j. T. Mcdonald, Director of the
leprosy investigation station and SUI
perintending physician Ito Ka1ihi hos
pita1 and by President A. L. Dean,
of the University Of Hawaii, as fol-
lows:
ed that chau1moogra oil contains one
or more agents which exert a marked
therapeutic action in many cases of
leprosy. We can not say as yet that
the disease is cured, since we have
no test adequate to establish sueh a
verdict Whether or not The appar-
ent cures are real and permanent 1t
is evident sl1at we have a valuable
agent at our disposal in the control
of 1.-THE disease.
Chaulnoogra oil in it's crude state
is no new drug for the treatment of
ieprosy, but in it's raw form it proved
so f1auseating and painful to patients
that 1t had to be temporarily d, Is,
derivattives and Drs. Mcdonald and
Dean report SIT was found that t.s
ethyl of the fatty acids were thu
fluid oils lending themselves readily
to in'tramuScular 1nJectdons and were
readily absorbed" @
Injection of the oil derivative by a
syringe has brought a new hope 20
the leper, for at Kalihi Hospital .'in-
lection day is described by the doc
tors report as an occasion for merry
making though of painful experience
for the sufferers.
THE standard treatment the re-
port says, "now consists in weekly
injections of preparation which
consists of THE mixed ethyl esters of
the acids of chaulmoogra oil with
two per cent. OF iodine in chemical
combination. The amount used starts
at once cubic eentfmeter and is grad
ually increased to maximum OF
four or five cubic cenitdmeters for
adults"
Accessory treatments of iodine lint
ment, ointments and sun baths are
employed as measures to improve the
general health and mental attitude
of the patients,
Drs. Mcdonald and Dean are Of the
opinion that leprosy Of the nerve type
as we'll as the noduiar cases should
receive the new treatment. They re-
por- astonishing results with the
nerve cases,
I'VE believe our remedies arrest
the disease, they say regarding the
nerve cases. land prevent further de-
struction of banda and 1ngers, even
when. as in long standing cases,
normal function can not be fully re-
stored.
During the past year we have
done better than simply arrest the
destructive process; we have had the
great satisfaction of seeding marked
Improvement in a considerable num-
Der Of these purely nerual cases, and
apparently complete recovery in
others. One young man who came in
with a decid eddy ataxic gait. una BILE
to raise his body on his toes and
with one hand SO weak and deformed
that he had been compelled to aban-
don the use of the typewriter year
before entering, SO far improved be-
fore his parole that his disability in
walking had not only disappeared
but he became one Of the leading
tennis players and one of the swiftess