Evening star., 1926-06-06
Infants Vaccinated
In tuberculosis War

ing descendants who repeated the
same uneventful life.
Finally the time came when Cal
mette and Guerin tried some of their
new brand of tuberculosis bacillus on
animals-apes. rabbits and others.
They found what they had hoped TO
find, namely, that the long diet on
billed potato had so weakened this
particular branch Of the tuberculosis
GERMS family tree that 1t was inca
pable of causing infection when in
jected into an animal. And, equally
necessary, it was not so weakened but
that il could make the animals body
react and set up a resistance so strong
that for the succeeding two or three
years no tuberculosis bacillus, how
ever strong it might be. could harm
the body.
The next step was to try the expert
ment on human beings. The big cues
ton was: Would injection or these
weakened germs set up some strange
disturbance hitherto unknown? This
bacillus was certainly novel. and no
one could predict exactly what would
happen. But the French doctors had
good reason to think nothing disas-
trous would occur. and so in the f1rst
part of 1922 they injected the new
newborn babies.
Nothing hs opened. In fact. nothing
happened to such a gratifying extent
that the latest reports show that OF
the Is who have died since then not
one has died because of tuberculosis,
SO far as can be determined. This is
despite the fact that three of the chill
dren have lived constantly with tuber-
culous mothers.
News of the vaccination spread so
that from July I. 1924, to June ]. 1925.
2,070 newborn babies We're given the
treatment. Calmette and Guerin have
received reports concerning 423 OF
these and the results are impressive,
as even the most conservative medical
Journals admit. In this group of 423
there were 1877 constantly exposed to
tuberculosis infection, the disease be-
ing in the family. Not one Of these
423 children has died from a case OF
recognized tubrC ulosis, though the
French scientists note with due eau
ton that there were two deaths from
doubtful causes.
What these results mean can be
better appreciated when we realize
that past records in France have
shown a child born of a tuberculous
mother has one chance in four of
dying of the disease within the first
year. Yet there are the records of 423
children (s6 of them were born of tu-
berculous mothers) of whom only two
at the most have died of the white
plague" Scientists do not let even
such a demonstration as this convince
them, but the results can at least be
called encouraging.
The French government became in
terested in this achievement, and the
natives of AMMAN, half way around
the world in French Indo-China, are
as a consequence probably wondering
what trick the white man is going to
play on them next. Whether they
like this new magic rite or not. they
must submit to 1t, for France has de-
cided that recruits from those equa-
torial countries that are free from
tuberculosis might as we'll get dose
of 'BCG" before coming north to fight
in the Riff or parade in France. where
the disease Is common. On the west
coast of Africa there are 21S native
youngsters running around with red
Identification marks on their black
shoulders. They, too, have had injec-
tions of the new strain of tubercle
bacilli, and there has been no bad
news about them yet.
Calmette and Guerin are careful to
insist that this vaccination is not ef-
fective for people who have already
contracted tuberculosis. AS this means
practically every one beyond a few
weeks of age, the treatment is re-
stricted mainly to newborn children.
In moderately crowded communities 30
per cent Of the population Is infected
with tuberculosis before reaching adult
years, The infection Is, Of course, in
most cases only slight otherwise the
human race would not last long). but
it is apparently enough to destroy the
efficacy Of the vaccine. But IL the
newborn child can be caught before
he contracts it, and IL the vaccination
is repeated. say. annually although
the effects of one treatment may last
for two or three years., tuberculosis
may find itself, figuratively speaking.
with its back to the wall.
Experiments show that when the
y -