Evening star., 1933-03-17
Washington News
Suffers Disease for Science
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
DIR. FRANCIS DELIBERATEl

he urges upon others, DR.. Ed
- ward Francis, Public Health
Service research worker, Is
keeping himself continuously exposed
in his laboratory here to infection with
the dreaded germs of tularemia, or rab-
bit fever, in order that he may keep
up a continuous fight against the dis
ease in others.
In other words. DR.. Francis volun-
tarily undergoes a succession Of mild
attacks in order to avoid the probabI-
ity of a severe attack which would In
capacitate him for months from active
work. It is one Of the conditions for
efficient functioning in his unique Job.
A single attack Of tularemia, it has
been shown, confers a variable, short
lived immunity to the disease. Fran
els is proceeding on the theory, which
is working out in practice. that 1t Is
best to contract the disease at the
borderline point where the immunizing
agency in his blood Is attenuated to
fection but at the same time Is suf-
ficiently preserved to prevent the ex-
treme condition Of collapse which usu-
ally attends tularemia.
Danger in Carcasses.
Tularemia infection usually comes
from rabbits and is likely to attack
marketmen, hunters and housewives
who handle the carcasses Of these ami
mails. Any break in the skin of the
hands gives the injecting organism a
chance to enter. The best precaution
is to handle rabbit carcasses only with
gloved hands. for one never can know
when a rabbit may contain the dreaded
organism. For years DR.. Francis has
been preaching the necessity of wear
them in contact with either dead or
live rabbits. Assistants at the hygenic
laboratory Of the Public Health sery-
ice. where the experimental work with
the disease Is carried on, are required
to operate only with gloved hands.
It Is this primary precautlon which
DR.. Francis himself deliberately neg
lects. The work is carried on with
rabbits in whom the strains Of the Or
ganism are kept going from generation
to generation. For years he has been
handling them freely with ungloved
hands and has suffered in the past
few years five mild attacks Of the d.
sease which only his most intimate
associates knew anything about.
Through them all he has continued at
work.
The other day an associate in the Pub
lie Health Service dropped into DR..
Francis laboratory. He noticed an
ulcer on the doctors finger which
looked suspiciously like the kind of ul-
Ger which appears at the site Of tula-
remia infection. It is one of the zymp-
toms CT the disease. Further inquiry
revealed that DR.. Francis also had the
characteristic glandular swelling un-
der the arm which soon follows the
primary sign.
Period Of Weakness.
Tularemia, as the disease Is described
by the Public Health Service, seldom is
fatal to man, but the victim Is very sick
for a short time, after which there is a
protracted period of great weakness and
lassitude during which any effort is al
most impossible. A year or more may
elapse before the system has shaken Off
these after effects of the disease. 1t
is this period when working efficiency
is almost at the vanishing point that
the scientist wishes to avoid and the
only way to avoid it Is to keep the tula-
remia in his system all the time Dr.
Francis believes that, regardless Of pre-
cautions, person working with ttila-
remia-infected animals all the time is
in danger of contracting the disease
every now and then and it is better to
have it frequently and mildly than in
frequently and severely. The malady
does not pass directly from man to
man, but must be transmitted through
the medium Of some small wild NAM
NAL like the rabbit. Several cases have
occurred in Washington and the first
case definitely identified was that of
an employe of the old Center Market.
DR.. Francis long has been a pic
turesque figure in the Public Health