RISKING DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 9

RISKING DEATH

BOLD EXPERIMENTERS

Professor Deyckc, accused of> having caused the death, of seventy-six babies;' at Lubeck, through negligence in administering' calmettc T.B. vaccine, i» reported .'to- Wye 'dosed himself with! the preparation to prove its harmless* ness (says the Sydney "Daily" Tele* graph")! .^. •/:; . ■ ■,:.■;■■. •

The;: Calmette vaccine is sot. inoculated,; but swallowed; Dey«U« wad ■charged with giving virnlent T.B. grenn^ in error when he. thought he was giving; th©; vaccine. ' '',':'':. '." ' ' '. "

His"action.ia simply a BpectacnJaif way.',of jprevingrto.'parents tliit C*lmette vaccine,"or * 'S.C'.Qt. '* Xwhich.has! bejen; given, without ili-effeet 't<>.'oyfee 100,000 infants ag-an immunising agent against■T>B.);|is; harmless.. By:taking, it Deycke runs no risk whatever. " ; '

Other experimenters, however, havd risked death to test their theories. Ta. prove leprous matter is not inocnlable* Professor Profcta ■ inoculated- Minsalland nine of his assistants. TSono. dW veloped leprosy. Similar self-inocula-tions were carried out by Drs..Daniel* sen, Halst, Hansen, and Bergilli. "r

To prove human cancer non-inf«je« tious, Professor . Enrzahh inoculated himself with matter from a cancer ofi the breast. He did not contract th« disease. . ...

To study the effects o£ a contagious disease, the famous anatomist, John Hunter, deliberately inoculated himself with the disease, causing his early; death from diseased arteries. .",!

Practically, every" discoverer of * new, anaesthetic has tried the drag oil him* self first. Simpson nearly killed him* self with chloroform, Fourni«r gay« himself stovaine, and Roller self-ia-jected cocaine.' . . ■ ■•;.'

To prove pellagra a diet disease, tli«( wife of Dr. Goldberg had herself ,in« jacted with the blood of a sufferer.' Nothing happened. To prove cat-mange transferable t« human beings, Dr. Clunies Boss, <st Sydney, inoculated himself with: infeetibug matter, and suffered severelybe* fore the condition was cured../. :

To ascertain the effect of tick-polio^ on adults, Dr. Selkirk, of Killw*, applied ticks to his body till he beeamfljt partly paralysed. : :' The roll of medical martyrs, must'include thousands to date, including thou who died to prove that yfllow-fever:« carried by mosquitoes. The majority of the experimenters went ;t<£;thiittr deaths after being yplnntMilyiirtea,- '