Evening star., 1951-02-28
Army Perfeeting Gun
For Painless InocuIotions
Advantages Of New Method
Obvious in Wartime
By Thomos R. Henry

"shot" gun by which large groups
Of people can be inoculated quickly and
painlessly is being perfected at the Army
Medical Service Graduate School here.
BY means of 1t vaccines. antibiotics
or morphine are shot against the skin
under high pressure.
Its advantages would be obvious with
any threat of biological warfare when
it might be necessary to inoculate an
entire population. It also, Army doctors
believe, would serve well in the case Of
troops ordered suddenly overseas.
With a hypodermic needle it is neces-
sary to fill and sterilize after each in
of the needle always is somewhat pain
full and many persons have q great
psychological dread of it.
The new method requires no needle.
1t is absolutely painless. The sensation
is no different from that caused by q
water spray under high pressure.
Method Avoids Infection.
Other important advantages pointed
out are:
With hypodermic needles there 10
some danger of transmitting infection.
such as syphilis, malaria or yellow
jaundice. This is especially true when
large numbers must be treated in o
hurry.
Since there is no penetration Of the
skin, except by the vaccine itself, no
sterilization is needed. Practically no
experience or training is necessary. Use
of the needle is job for doctor or
trained technician. This would be very
important in such an emergency as Q
mass bombing.
When produced in quantities. jet-in-
lection apparatus will be relatively In
expensive.
There is occasional failure Of the Jet
to penetrate the skin Of persons with
particularly thick hides or with thick
"blubber." A control that will enable
the operator to vary the pressure ac-
cording to the individual is being worked
out.
The method is worthless for any but
injections under the skin. It cannot
be used for injections into the blood
stream.
Jet injections have been in use, but
on very limited scale, for some years.
The Army's apparatus is great inn
provement over any used In the past.
Discovery Of the method is believed to
have come from observations Of auto
mobile oil being forced through the
skin of mechanics. It also was noted
that fine jets of oil at high velocity,
as from leaking hydraulic line, could
penetrate human skin and leave little
or no mark.
The apparatus, 1t is emphasized, still
is in the experimental stage and will
not be used for some time.
A new antibiotic active against
smoebae in dilutions as great as one In
130 million has been reported to the
American Association for the Advance
ment Of Science.
1t is extracted from species of mould,
like penicillin. The new substance, de-
scribed by DIR. Max c. McCowen and
his associates Of the Lilly Research
Laboratories at Indianapolis, appears to
be the most potent agent yet found
against the microscopic animals re-
sponsible for amoebic dysentery and
many other maladies.
New Amoebic Antibiotic.
The new antibiotic. called fumagillin.
seems to be specific against amoebas.
Tests show that it apparently has little
C1NOb aSdIlot OI1lCI &duloI18
such as bacteria, fungi or viruses. 1t
is the first substance yet found which
seems to be specific against amoebae.
Even in crude form 1t is effective. in
laboratory tests with animals. in dilu-
tions as high as one part to 16 million.
The principal tests to date have been
with experimental infections with rab-
bits. 1t was found, according to DR..
McCowen and his associates, that the
animals could be completely cured by
the microscopic organism in four di-
vided doses administered over two days.
Less than 100 milligrams per kilogram
of body weight was administered. Quite
similar results have been brought about
with young rats.
Tests with humans. where amoebic
diseases such as dysentery are likely
to be very serious, await further ex-
periments with animals. Maladies
caused by these organisms are likely
to be extremely serious and sometimes
tend to run in epidemics. The bacteri-
ologists emphasize that their report Ii
entirely preliminary, but they see no
reason to believe that fumagillin would
have detrimental effects on humans.
They have demonstrated that it has
no effect on influenza in mice.