Evening star., 1937-04-18

monia or possibly typhoid. OF these
it resembled mostly pneumonia, for the
lungs Of patients filled up and there
were other symptoms in common. But
there was still about it some peculiar
characteristics that had the doctors
puzzled.
DR. George w. Mccoy was then
director of the National Institute
OF Health. Indeed, he had built the
place up from an insignificant hygien-
lc laboratory into an organization that
was looked upon as the finest group
OF germ fighters in the whole country,
and was highly praised abroad. as
well, for the valuable contributions
its members had made to science.
DR.. Mccoy, who has been with the
United States Public Health Service
for 81 years, was director of the in
stitute for 81 years, and his wonderful
work in this connection is recognized
wherever men follow medical progress.
Now DR.. Mccoy has returned to his
beloved research, and is in charge OF
special studies on the prevalence and
spread OF leprosy, on which he is an
outstanding authority, for the United
States Public Health Service.
DR.. Mccoy was we'll fitted to tackle
this new problem of the strange,
exotic parrot fever, when requests
began to pour in about it that January
day in 1890 He had been in hospital
work at the start of his medical
career, for two years. Then he had
gone through quarantine assignment
that lasted four years For another
year he was a student at the old
Hygienic Laboratory along the shores
Of the gray Potomac Then he en-.
gagged in research work under DR..
Thompson, present director of the
National Institute. AS he puts it:
Now here is where / was lucky. I
got chance at four years plague
research and four years leprosy re-
search, and after that, 81 years as
head of the institute"
During his leprosy research he had
spent four years at the Hawaiian
leper colony at Moa Kai. among what
he terms "a large number of happy
and contented people" The remark
Is typical of the human viewpoint
that this tall, lanky, kindly, inspired
scientist brings to his activities. To
him leper is not a human being to
be summed and submerged in pity.
He is an individual in need of regular
medical attention, who lives as con-
tentedly as he may in a colony of
similarly afflicted neighbors.
So, when one after the other labora-
tory helpers and scientists in the in
stitute began coming down with parrot
fever, shortly after infected birds had
been brought in from Baltimore for
study, DR.. Mccoy said, quite NATTER
of-factly and sincerely: 1T was too
dangerous to expose any more Of the
fellows to it. just saw that wouldn't
be right. I made them all quit work.
ing on it. got them all out Of there
and took over the study myself"
So completely did he make them all
"get out Of there" that he isolated
himself from all the workers, shut
them OF from his own experiments,
and would not even permit the watch
men or general cleaners to relieve
him OF the work of cleaning bird
cages and other menial tasks in con-
nection with his experiments
Yet the astonishing thing about it
all was that, in spite Of the utmost
precaution, and apparently for no
reason whatsoever. others began COM
ing down with parrot fever, or psitta-
COSTS as it Is called, until IL OF them
In all had been stricken and Of
the cases had been no more closely
connected with 1t than to 20 in and
out Of remote sections Of the same
building. At the same time, DR.. Nc
Coy, handling infected birds and cages
daily in his study Of the disease, re-
manned unaffected and never was
infected with the disease. Such are
the mysteries of science.
IT WAS in Annapolis, Md, that
psittacosis first came to the marked
attention Of the public of the United
States. The outbreak of parrot fever
there had been spectacular. Acct
dental circumstances" declares DR..
Mccoy today, may lead to very i'm
portant results. It's one Of the fas-
cinations of accumulating bits of
knowledge" In this case the acci-
dental circumstance was the remark
Of physicians wife to the effect
that she had been reading about
parrots in Sunday supplement.
The physician in question had Just
returned, discouraged, from a case he