The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-06
new DRUGS SPEED
CURE OF LEPR0SY
Fl Lepers Discharged Al
Cured From Marine Hos
pital In Louisiana
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE
Associated Press Science Editor

By HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE
Associated Press Science Editor
NEW YORK, April S. (R -
Twenty-one lepers have been dis
charged as cured recently from
the Carville, La, U. S. Marine
hospital.
Cured is not the word the ply
sicians use. They say arrested
cases Of leprosy. But these dis
charged patients are considered as
cured in all respects. All the
medical evidence indicates real
cures and that evidence now COW
ers up to five years.
Two Of the d received diasone
and 10 received promin, both new
drugs. There is a third, known as
promizole, now in use to treat the
disease, and there are some rea-
sons for expecting promizole to do
better than the other two.
One result is a complete change
in the medical plans for fighting
|leprosy. On the basis of these
drugs it appears that early cases
are rather readily stopped or
cured.
Therefore public health authori-
ties are trying to institute the
same early diagnosis and treat
ment for leprosy that is used for
tuberculosis and cancer.
But to succeed it is necessary
to get the public to understand
that leprosy is neither horrible nor
any of the other things that every
child thinks he knows. The bad
name of leprosy was started in
the scriptures. Whatever the
scriptural disease may have been
that was called leprosy, it is not
the disease today known to the
world.
The physicians who have been
treatment it for years oughtto know
One of these, DR.. G.. H. FACET.
medical officer in charge of the
lCarville hospital says, in the Star.
a publication of the nearly 400 pa
tents at Carville:
There are several types OF lepro
sy. some OF which are not con
tagious at all.
Some OF the patients with tn
greatest amount Of mutilation, art
burned-out cases, and of absolute
Ily no danger to others.
Fingers and toes do not drol
off. In far-advanced cases. de
formities occur.
Children are more susceptible
than adults.
Leprosy is a family disease. l
is not hereditary, but the chill
may contract it from contact wit
his parents.
Leprosy is not a filth disease
it is not an unclean disease, j
is not a curse OF God.
Those discharged with the dis
ease arrested" are of no furthe
menace to anyone. These patient
need the sympathy OF the publ
to return to an honorable and use
full life.
Discharged lepers have been re
fused jobs, or fired from n jol
after another as soon as employ
ers discovered that they once hat
the disease.
Leprosy is a germ disease
which is never very contagious
The Carville patients are cam
paigning to have the name
changed to Hansen's disease, aft
er the physician who discovered
the germ.
But they run into difficulties ii
reaching the public. Their modes
monthly magazine, the Star, car
ries this line: This paper, ane
all outgoing mail, is sterilized be
fore leaving the hospital
Elsewhere in science:
A new kind Of thermometer ha'
been developed by the Genera
Electric for m S RIM
the heat of the jet flames OF Ger
man W. and other rockets. These
blasts are so hot that any ma
terial substance would melt in 1
fraction Of a second.
The thermometer is two peri
scopes, n looking at the jet a!
it move away and the other look
ing at theSsame stream Of fir'
as it approaches. This Is done b,
placing the %periscopes at differen
positions for looking at the same
jet.
The ~periscopes, with aid o
spectroscopes, measure the wav'
lengths Of light emitted from thu
speeding flames. The wave length
are slightly longer when looking
at the flaming gases speeding
away from the periscope. The
wave lengths are a mite shorter
when looking the other direction
The reason is the doppler effect
The light in both cases is moving
with its own uniform velocity o
1876, 900 miles 4 second with TIN
addition, or the subtraction, Of thu
speed Of the fire which emits thu
light waves. This stream OF firI
is moving faster than a mile
e,oopJ