Evening star., 1937-02-28

Continued From First Page)
ton laboratory, got together some
guinea pigs, 80 mice, 80 white rats and
80 rabbits and started West. A new
disease was nothing to daunt DR.. Fran
els. He had investigated spotted fever
in Montana, yellow fever in Vera Cruz,
Mexico. and plague in Durango. in
Mexico. In New Orleans he had in
vestigated plague, in Texarkana the
dreaded poliomyelitis or "infantile
paralysis; in Savannah, Ga, pellagra
and filariasis-the st-mentioned dis
ease also known as "guinea-worm dis
ease" had occupied his attention way
back in 1901, when, as young medical
inspector on board a French steamer
arriving from The Hague, he had
examined an emirant Negro from the
Gold Coast and discovered the pres
ence of the disease and had subse-
quently written a report that attracted
the attention of Washington and re-
suited in his being called to the Cap
ital for research work in its hygienic
laboratory.
He had been down to Mexico for q
third time too. to look into a cholera
outbreak. In the course Of his inveS-
LEGATIONS he had contracted dengue in
Savannah in 1915. In Utah, in 1913,
he came down with tularemia. In
1928 in Washington, D. c., he con-
tracted undulant fever as a result OF
laboratory work, and two years later
was stricken with psittacosis-or par
rot fever'-exotic in origin and mys-
terious in nature, while in the course
of investigation into new diseases.
His hands today are a miracle OF
healed scars, pits and scales, mute
reminders of sacrificial bouts with
bacteria.
The progress of his own attacks
have all been charted and recorded
for those who come after. First ex-
posure of E. F." Original attack Of
E. F." they tabulate dispassionately,
and with the same precise attention
accorded his own guinea pigs. DIR.
Francis has had about everything we
got here" a laboratory assistant told
me. He doesn't even know he has
a body when it comes to finding out
what bug is causing the damage"
WITH this same sublime indiffer-
ence of self he set about his
investigations In Utah. In the Phavant
Valley r. S. had come down with
what he called "deer-fly fever" He
had had pains in his neck and
shoulders. A small ulcer had ap-
peared on his neck. He was terribly
he was literally burned up with q
fever that scared and slumped. The
farmers all thought q deer-fly had
bitten him. With the patients con-
sent, DR.. Francis extracted q small
quantity Of blood Later he injected
it into two guinea pigs and into two
of the rabbits he had brought with
him. Five days later the animals
were dead
Autopsies on the guinea pigs and
rabbits disclosed that their livers and
spleens were dotted all over with small
white spots, and the spleens were
enormously swollen. This looked
dangerously like q plague disease.
Francis, part Of whose job was thor
ough knowledge of all investigations
and papers Of the institute, had IA
miliarized himself q short while be-
fore with certain Investigations and
reports made by DR.. George w. Nc
Coy in Tulare County, Calf DR.. Nc
Coy had gone out to California to
find out the source OF the bubonic
plague which had got into that State
in 1900 via the ships from China and
India. Ordering his henchmen to
bring in rodents Of all kinds for in
vestigation, Mccoy had discovered q
"plaguelike" condition in the livers
of certain ground squirrels, but it had
not quite matched ,bubonic plague
conditions. So. in his report, DR.. Nc
Coy had written Of a "plaguelike dis
ease in rodents" Now Francis re-
membered these reports and he wired
Washington to send him all literature
available on 'plaguelike disease of
rodents"
Meanwhile r. s. had died of the
disease. DR.. Francis pored over the
reports that arrived from Washing
ton. He recognised the findings of
Mccoy and the disease he had located
in his rabbits and guinea pigs in
fected with the blood of the patient
r. s., to be the same. He set his
hunters on the track Of wild rabbits,
for in his chase for rodents he had
come upon jackrabbit that seemed
to have died natural death, and an
autopsy had disclosed the same sig
nificant spotted condition of its liver
and spleen. He concentrated on the
wild rabbit. Then he himself came
down with the fever.
He was q long while convalescing,
but when he got around again 1t was
to find that his laboratory assistant,
Gregory Lake, had taken the disease
and was in Naval Hospital with a case
diagnosed IS typhoid"
T ATER they toiled together IN the
laboratory in Washington, making
tests with the blood Of patients who
had had "deer-fly fever" ascertaining
If the bite Of the deer fly actually con-
veyed the disease, delving into the
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