Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-20
NEW POISON FOUND
PARALYSIS CAUSE
Experiments Show Specific
Effects Are Only on Motor
Nerves of Extremities.
CONTINUED From First Pase.,


10 neurons involved in sensation. AL
the superficial reflexes remained normal
and there were no visual disturbances,
such as are customary from the effect
Of alcohol on the nervous system.
Further tests showed that there was no
effect on the brain, or central nervous
system above the spinal cord, or on the
nerve tracts leading from the cranial
ganglia or nerve centers in the skull.
The only exception to these findings
was in the case Of the well known knee
Jerk" which was nearly normal in the
milder cases, could not be obtained ut
all Ia some very severe cases, and was
greatly exaggerated in some lightly
effected persons.
Nearly as remarkable Is the perna-
hence Of the lower motor neuron in
Movement. Replies to q recent QueS-
tionnaire sent to State health offlcers by
among the thousands Of cases to date
there have been no reeoveries and
practically no improvement except such
as would be expected in paralysis as the
victim became more familiar with his
condition and learned to do such things
as feed himself without the aid of the
paralyZed muscles. Health officers also
reported that in severe cases the con-
dition Is growing worse through the
dition that naturally would follow lack
of nerve control and long disuse In
louisiana the State health officer re-
ported, considerable hope was aroused
by reported cures from mud baths, but
this treatment has not fulfilled the
early promise. The only deaths report
ed are four from Kansas. ~.
Most Victims White Men.
The returns show that almost all the
victims are white men and women, al
though the greatest number of cases
were from Southern States with large
colored populations Mississippi led the
list with 1000. Public Health officials,
however, are not inclined to believe that
the poison is so specific as to attack
only white men and not eolored men,
although tests with mammals at the
National Institute of Health showed O
remarkable difference of specificity be-
tween groups, the availability of the
poison taken by mouth to strike the
lower motor neurons evidently depend
ing on very fine balance of conditions
in the inner organism. Between races
of men, it Is pointed out, the apparent
difference probably is due to the fact
that Jake" in the South is white
mans drink, the Negro consuming
mostly synthetic gin and corn whisky.
March, when approximately 400 per-
sons were stricken In small Southern
city, Johnson City, Tenn, with what
seemed to be a mysterious epidemic
which local physicians could not dag
nose. Almost Immediately afterward
reports of similar "epidemicsn began TO
come from other Southern States, Ohio
and New England. Men, women and q
few children were stricken. Public
health officers sent to investigate and
local physicians soon learned that o
great many of the victims-too many
for a pure chance coincidence-were
known Jake" addicts. But the diff.
ficulty of diagnosis was complicated by
the fact that some were leading citizens
and supposed total abstainers, who
would deny vigorously that they ever
took sip of Jake" In secret until fear
OF the persistent paralysis drove them
to confess. Besides, 1t was hardly likely
that the children were lake" drinkers,
but most OF these cases proved upon in
vestigation to be spinal meningitis or in.
fantile paralysis, which had happened to
occur in close proximity to the poison
cases. A public health, officer related
yesterday how he finally wrung a con-
fession from one man, q respected
citizen, that he had consumed half q
bottle OF Jake" But further CONVERSE
ton revealed that his wife had drunk
the other half. He was very seriously
affected, She showed no effects at ali.
Such eases increased the mystery of the
poison.
The Chemical Detection. =
The final isolation of the suspected
poison. believed to be the end result
chemically OF some adulterant placed in
f~Aw
chemical detective work in the iabora-
tories OF the National Health Institute.
which ran into seemingly insurmount-
able obstacles at every corner.
First the Jake" was administered to
rabbits with stomach tube. All the
suspected samples produced a general
lied haccid paralysis, general muscular
weakness and hyperexcitability, which
showed 2 rather general nervous In
movement, rather than the SPECIFIC one
noted IN men. The poisoned animals
died. Those given uncontaminated
Jake extract showed no Ill effects.
Then the suspected extract was adj
m1nistered by mouth to monkeys. There
was no effect at all. The same was
true OF dogs. The ginger extract an.
parently was broken down in the diaes-
tive processes of men and rabbits SO
as to release the poison for its attack
on the motor neurons, but was not
broken down in the digestive processes
OF dogs and monkeys. This curious
SPECIFIC effect remains unexplained
the next step was fractional distilla-
ton. First the water and alcohol were
taken out of the extract and the re-
naming substance broken up step by
step into its component parts, in an
effort to find the guilty agent by q
process OF elimination. Finally the dis
tillation yielded a tiny amount of a SUBJ
stance showing close relationship with
the phenol group, widely used as dis
infectants and with highly poisonous
effects on the nervous system. This
was then injected into the muscles and
under the skin of monkeys. The results
were roughly similar to those Of the
whole, Jake" extract in man. There
was fiaccid motor paralysis of the upper
and lower extremities. The monkeys
at first went into comas from which
they soon recovered. But the condi-
ton resulted in death in four or Ave
days.
. The experiments seem to show, saws
DR.. Maurice !. Smith, senior phar-
macologist of the National Health In
stitute, who was In charge Of the work,
that the phenolic compound must be
an extremely stable substance resisting
decomposition in the body of the
monkey or the dog and therefore
harmless"
1t is noteworthy that in rabbits the
poison finally attacked the breathing
center in the medulla of the brain, so
that death was caused by respiratory
failure. 1t did not do this with men
or other animals. The undistilled ex-
tract, which. has caused such serious
results in men, only made the monkeys
harmlessly drunk.
The chemists still are far from know
ing exactly what the poison Is, although
they have obtained some of the SUBJ
stance which apparently does the dam