The Nome daily nugget., 1935-12-03

termined, for 1t has not yet had suf- ficient test.
 A necessary requisite for both vaccines is the Rhesus monkey, the little "blushing" monkey, so called because of the way his face gets red when he is excited, which we see in zoos.
 Rhesus monkeys are imported from India, where they are held to be sacred, at cost of S10 each. In preparation for giving his life that humanity may be saved from the scourge of polio. the monkey is quarantined for two weeks to make sure that 1t Is in good health. At the end of that period it is given an ether anesthetic and the polio virus is injected through its skull into the brain. Infantile paralysis develops.
 When the disease reaches Its ell max, the monkey Is killed and Its spinal cord, full of the virus, is removed. This cord is hacked up into tiny bits and immersed in salt solution in vessel which con tains a number of steel balls a half inch or so in diameter. While the vessel Is shaken and agitated for 12 hours, the balls crush the bits of spinal cord to pulp. The fluid which Is thus contained is attenu- ated with sodium ricinoleate and al- lowed to incubate for eight hours. Then 1t is strained and purified and put into bottles which hold five cubic centimeters each. enough to bring immunity to three children.
 Children Replace Animals.
 While indications certainly point to the fact that at least artificial i'm munity has been perfected, the vac. cines are still admittedly in the ex. experimental stage. The last great experiment is. one of the most dra. matic medical tests that could be imagined.
 For instead of monkeys or white mice. the laboratory subjects are boys and girls. Some of them are selected to receive the vaccine and an equal number are selected as controls" who will not receive the injections, but who will be observed for symptoms exactly the same as the vaccinated subjects.
 All selections are made by lot. To insure against the personal ac- quaintance element which might de- stroy the impartiality so vital to such an undertaking. the adminis- tration of the tests has been taken out of the hands of local authorl- ties. Medical men from the United States public health service are op- erating to relieve local physicians from the inhuman task. Dr. James P. Leake directs the work.
 pr. A. c. Gillian. at Greensboro, N. C., has been charged with the thankless job of deciding which children are to receive the vaccine and which are to act as controls. It is he who must listen to the pitiful pleading of parents that their chil- dren be given the chance for immu- nifty. Here is something which may prevent their loved ones from con- tracting one of the most dreadful of all diseases. Even If it does not work 1t will do no harm.
 But humanity must know for cer- tain whether 1t will work. And If such knowledge Is ever to be &C., quired, the tests must be conducted impersonally. The vaccine must be administered to children of all classes-the poor, the rich, the in- telligent, the unintelligent. It must be given to many whether their par ents want them to have 1t or not And 1t must be withheld from oth. CTS whose parents have, like one of the most prominent surgeons in the South, fought tooth and toenail and pulled every string in desper- ate attempt to secure immunization for them.
 Selecting the Subjects. There is drama for you! What heroes these federal men are to be able to withstand the frantic plead ing of loving mothers and straw grasping fathers!
 Here's the way Doctor Gillian does it:
 Parents who desire vaccine for their children register with their family physician. Half the children are selected for vaccine and the other half as controls by Doctor Gilliam's office. Then those to be vaccinated are ordered to report back to their physician and are given the vaccine. The physician must give 1t as ordered, must ac. count for his supply, because the