Evening star., 1938-05-22


Gently printed on this page an article
qiuing reasons aduanced for such re-
search. This letter replies to that
article. With its publication, The Star
considers the discussion cloSed)
To the Editor of The Star:
WILL you afford us space for the full
answer our membership feels to be
necessary in regard to the long apologize
made recently by one of your columnists in
defense of Dr. Walls statement before a
congressional committee on January %
last. relating to the use of the funds COL
lected by the Presidents Birthday Balls?
Since the writer of the above defense is
himself layman who merely repeats what
he is told by one section Of medical
opinion, allow us as representatives of
those layman who make serious study
Of medical methods in close cooperation
with an enlightened number of physicians
who have discontinued medicine based on
animal experimentation to present our own
investigation of the necessity OF using
monkeys for combating the scourge of in
fantle paralysis.
Your columnst refers to the statement
made by Dr. Wall before a congressional
committee within the hearing of the pres
ent writers, as follows: 1T may be Of in
terest to know that the purpose of the
president Birthday Ball tonight
is to raise a fund for the estab-
lishment of a foundation for research.
Not one penny of that fund will go to
buying a crutch for crippled child Not
one dollar of it will go to President Roose-
velts pet foundation in Georgia. The
majority of the dollars in that fund will
go for the purchase of monkeys in order
that we may carry out proper animal re-
search Yes on the thousands of little
rhesus monkeys shared in their native
jungles of India to meet death by sea-
sickness or after prolonged tortures in
American laboratories, unfortunates whom
Mahatma Gandhi is trying to protect by
enacting law against their expectation.
There is wide medical background of
denial of your columnistss broad assertion
that the basic attack on the terrible
scourge of poliomyelitis can be
carried on at present in many of its
aspects only by the use of monkeys" But
the first important question is to in
quire of your columnist if his statement
is correct: The statement lDr. Wall's)
while essentially true. was made offhand
and is mslesding?" Whom was Dr. Wall
misleading? AS a matter of fact the
printers proof Of his testimony was in
Dr. Walls hands for correction. He al
lowed the testimony to stand as he gave
it before the committee.
It also brings us to the question: Just
how, exactly. has the money collected by
the Presidents birthday balls been eX-
pended?
AS to the medical denial of the wisdom
of continuing to use monkeys in the search
for the cause of infantile paralysis or of
producing from their blood an immunizing
serum, let us refer your columnist to the
results of Dr. Simon Flexners exhaustive
work with monkeys published in Science
November /, 1885: mo evidence exists
showing that passage of virus through
monkeys removes its power to infect and
produce paralysis in man. On the con-
trary. we possess convincing observations
which show that an indeterminate number
Of passages of virus through human beings
does not deprive it of its potential paralyz-
ing effect when injected into monkeys"
The bible of animal experimenters, the
Journal of the American Medical Associa-
ton, printed an editorial on November 9,
1885, stressing the importance of DR.. Flex-
10 ynonko1, dooS ot
set up reliable immunization against infan-
tile paralysis.
We quote: investigators have learned
during many years of experimentation that
the virus of poliomyelitis is strikingly un-
stable in its disease producing properties.
Specimens of virus of high virulence may
suddenly decrease in activity and then after
a time regain the lost power while being
preserved in glycerin. On the other hand,
some strains Of poliomyelitis virus show
weak activity and frequently fail to induce
infection in the monkey. AS early as 1910
Flexner and Lewis discovered that in the
process of immunizing Macacus monkeys
with living virus proportion of monkeys
instead of becoming immune always be-
came paralyzed. In view of expert
mental studies Flexner believes that
there is no evidence showing that the
passage of virus through monkeys removes
its power to infect and produce paralysis
in man."
Yet in $685. according to DR.. Wall before
aa congressional committee, hundreds of
thousands of dollars are still being spent
on monkey experimentation. Is it only to
spray their noses with an experimental
solution that these trapped unfortunates
are being imported into American labMa-
tories?
Your columnist assumes that all citizens
who protest this discredited monkey prac-
tice are in favor of allowing infantile
paralysis to rage unchecked by honest re-
search or cure. Allow us to reply to this
viewpoint, that questioning of proper
method does not separate us from pur-
pose even deeper than those of our critics
to aid in public health. That there is be-
ginning to be q real understanding Of tho
cause ea recent widespread "epidemics" Of