The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-08-29

i Rhesus monkeys are imported
4 from India, where they are held
q to be sacred, at a cost of $1,000
& each. In preparation for giving his
i life that humanity may be saved
4 from the scourge of polio, the mon
key is quarantined for two weeks
to make sure that it is in good
health. At the end of that period
1t 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 climax,
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 a salt solution in
vessel which contains number of
steel balls a half inch or so in d.
ameter. While the vessel is shaken and
agitated for II hours, the balls crush
the bits of spinal cord to pulp. The
fluid which is thus obtained Is at
tenuated with sodium ricinoleate and
allowed to incubate for eight hours.
Then it is strained and purified and put
into bottles which hold five cubic cent?
meters each, enough to bring immunity
to three children.
The cost of making three-dOse
treatment is $500. In order to reduce
this cost-which is forced by the high
cost of importing the administrators
Kolmer suggests that laboratory be
established right at the source of sup
ply in India. There the spinal cords
could be prepared and the vaccine
shipped out in a solution Of glycerine.
Children Replace Animals.
While indications certainly point to
the fact that at last artificial immunity
has been perfected, the vaccines are
still admittedly in the experimental
stage. The last great experiment is
one of the most dramatic 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. Abb
solutely no Partially is shown. To
insure against the personal acquain-
lance element which might destroy the
impartiality so vital to such an under
taking, the administration of the tests
has been taken out of the hands of 10
cal authorities. Medical men from the
United States public health service are
operating to relieve local physicians
from the inhuman task. DR.. James P.
Leake directs the work.
DIR. A. G. Gillian, at Greensboro, N.
c., has been charged with the thank
less job of deciding which children are
to receive the vaccine and which are
to act as controls. 1t is he who must
listen to the pitiful pleading of par
ents that their children be given the
chance for immunity. Here is some
thing which may prevent their loved
ones from contracting one of the most
dreadful of all diseases. Even If 1t
does not work it will do no harm.
But humanity must know for certain
whether it will work. And If such
knowledge is ever to be acquired, the
tests must be conducted fmpersonally.
The vaccine must be administered to
children of all classes-the poor, the
rich, the intelligent, the unintelligent.
1t must be given to many whether their
parents want them to have 1t or not.
And it must be withheld from others
whose parents have, like one of the
most prominent surgeons in the South,
fought tooth and toenail and pulled
every string in desperate attempt to
secure immuniZation for them.
Selecting the Subjects.
There is drama for you'll What
heroes these federal men are to be
able to Withstand the frantic pleading
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 Sc
lected for vaccine and the other half
as controls by Doctor Gilliam's office.
Then those to be vaccinated are or
dered to report back to their physician
and are given the vaccine. The physi-
clan must give it as ordered, must ac-
count for his supply, because the fed
eral men have the names of the re-
cipients on file and the recipients them
selves under observation. The idea. of
course, is to observe whether fewer
cases develop among the vaccinated
group than among the control group.