New Britain herald., 1928-04-06
MONKEY IS USED
 IN FEVER TESTS
ElpeditS Research Work in
 South Africa

@~o" AoAn, ApiA o.--Tf-&AaA , study of yellow fever. the mystcri- ous tropical disease that once took heavy toll in the western henis- phere, has been expedited by the achievements of little band Of scientists now at work in west Africa.
 The yellow fever commission of the International Health Board Rockefeller Foundation, has found an Asiatic monkey, similar to the familiar companion of the organ grinder. that is susceptible to the disease. Working with this prmate. the commission has already made several important contributions 10 knowledge of the fever.
 The experts have been able 10 transmit the virus consistently 10 the monkey known as Macacus Rhesus, both by inoculation and by the primary infective agent, the mosquito. It has been found that the serum from recovered cases of yellow fever will protect monkeys SaIIGL ' u Alrlib 'IoOl, dI lIilIpI tant discovery because it indicates the possibility of treating human patients in like manner, The scien- lists have also used q filtered blood to produce fatal infections in mon- keys. thereby demonstrating that the yellow fever organism is ultra microscopic since it cannot be caught by the finest filters This bears out the conclusion reached in 1901 by Dr. Walter Reed head of the commission which found that g female mosquito. the Stegomyia was the transmitter of the disease.
 The commissions fourth note worthy contribution to date is nega- tive. but is perhaps equally impor- tant to the further study of yellow fever. It has failed to identify the organism. This opens the question of whether the yellow fever found in west Africa-the only place on the globe where the disease is epi- demic--is the same as the type that once ravaged tropical America, reaching the United States in 1878 and 1897.
 Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of Rockcfel- Ter Institute. now with the com missions workers in Nigeria and the Gold coast, believed several years ago that he had isolated the organism. But the failure of the present research to identify the leptospira. or germ, suggests either that pr. Noguchi was not success full or that different variety Of the fever exists in West Africa
 To aid in solving the puzzle, the foundation is sending to the com- mission serum from persons who survived the severe epidemic that swept the southern United States in 1897. Samples have already been taken in Memphis, Tenn. If the serum from the blood of these re- covered patients protects little Macacus Rhesus against the Afri- can virus. then the two types Of the disease are identical or closely related.
 Medical science finds itself in an unusual position with respect to yellow fever. Knowing that the dis ease was transmitted only by the mosquito, the experts have been able to eradicate the malady in the western world by strenuous clean- up campaigns such as were waged by Dr. w. C. Gorgas in Havana and the Canal Zone. By stamping out the fever. however. they also re- moved the source of the virus and Of convalescent serum, and found themselves without clinical material. Serum from recovered patients is the only material that has been available for research in yellow fever among humans.
 Many authorities believe that the Rockefeller Foundations fight is now being waged in the original home of yellow fever. contendng that the disease was carried west ward by the slave ships. In the last