We are told that "the hands of the children were confined during the first twelve hours, to prevent any rubbing of the eye."
Can it be that dying children were thus treated? We are not told to the contrary. Yet it would seem that impending death might well have conferred immunity, not merely from such restraint but from the entire experiment. The thought of a dying child with fettered hands, is not a picture upon which the imagination would willingly dwell.
Upon these experiments involving the eye, what judgment is a plain man entitled to make?
In the first place, he should draw a clear distinction between the experiments made upon tuberculous patients, and those made upon healthy children. Among the large number of experiments, it is possible that some were made upon carefully selected cases for the personal benefit of the individuals concerned. Regarding these, opinions may differ as to expediency; but they belong to the rightful province of medical tratment,—wise or otherwise. But if these tests were applied without discrimination, without previous inquiry into their condition; if they were made only upon the eyes of the orphans and foundlings, and the poor in hospital and dispensary, and not upon the children of the wealthier classes; if in large numbers, men, women and children were made "the unselected material" for tests wherein their individual welfare was not sought, in experiments which not only "produced great physical discomfort" but were liable also to "permanently affect the vision, and even lead to its entire destruction," it would seem impossible to regard them with admiration or approval. Would any of us care to have his own dying child, separated from its mother, and with hands confined, made the "material" for any such experiment? Should we care to have anyone dear to us, subjected to the risks which seem to have been so freely imposed upon the unfortunate, the ignorant, the poor? That is the test by which ultimately these experiments will be judged.
IV. The Rockefeller Institute, and Experimentation on Human Beings
In public esteem, the Rockefeller Institute undoubtedly occupies an exceptionally hight position. It would seem to be generally believed, that by reason of experiments made within its walls upon the lower animals, discoveries of the utmost value to the human race are bing added to the resources of medical science. Possibly, a careful analysis of its work might disprove this belief, but that is aside from present inquiry. A more important question confronts us,—the extent to which under the authority of this Institution, human beings as well as animals have been used as "material" from researches altogether unconnected with their personal benefit. If such experiments have in truth been made under the authority of the Rockefeller Institute, it would seem to be of the utmost importance that the exact truth be made known. It is not always easy to state medical facts in popular language, but the attempt shall be made. ———————- When Columbus returned from his discovery of a new world, it is now generally believed that he brought to Europe the germ of one of the most terrible diseases which have ever afflicted the human race. The extent of its malignancy has only been known within the past century. The unborn infant may be touched by it with the possibility of great suffering, and the probability of an early death. There is not an organ of the human body which may not become the seat of its ravages. The majority of other infectious diseases leave their victim after a time; this makes its home within the body and may manifest its malignity after almost a lifetime of quiescence. In its contribution to the sum total of suffering which disease has occasioned the human race, it is probably that with one exception, syphilis stnds above every other human ailment.
On March 3, 1905, a young German biologist by the name of Schaudinn discovered under the microscope what is now generally believed to be the germ of this terrible disease. It is a minute, spiral-shaped organism, with six or eight curves, and capable of movement in space. Its place in the scheme of existence is not wholly certain, but the probability seems that it is a protozoan, belonging to the lowest form of animal life. Its very simplicity makes it appalling; we do not understand how anything so innocent in appearance, can occasion such terrible ravages. In the course of the evolution of life how came it into being? We can only surmise. But once having gained a foothold in the body of a human being, the minute organism begins to multiply: and penetrating to any part of the body, it induces the ravages of a destroyer espite all the opposing defences which Nature may raise against it. The discoverer first called it the "Spirochaete pallidum," but later invented a new name—"Treponema pallidum"—by which it is at present generally known. It is almost ceratin that in this minute organism, invisible to the naked eye, we have the causative agent of one of the great destroyers of the human race.
A Japanese physician, connected with various phases of research work in the Rockefeller Institute (Dr. Hideyo Noguchi), believed it would be possible to device a method for detecting the existence of these germs of syphilis in certain latent and obscure cases, where the disease was merely suspected. He had no though of inventing a cure for the disease; it was a method of detection only. By ingenious procedures which it is unnecessary here to describe, Dr. Noguchi succeeded in cultivating these germs OUTSIDE THE HUMAN BODY; and after grinding them in a sterile mortar, and subjecting them to heat with other manipulations, he found himself finally in possession of an extract or emulsion to which he gave the name of "luetin." It contains the germs of syphilis; but they are intended to be DEAD GERMS. The experimenter himself says:
"I have proposed the name LUETIN for an emulsion or extract of pure culture of Treponema pallidum, which is designed to be employed for obtaining in suitable cases, a specific cutaneous reaction that may become a valuable diagnostic sign in certain stages or forms of syphilitic infection."
Now, if a drop of this luetin be introduced beneath the skin of a child who has inherited the disease, or of a person who has suffered from its obscurer symptoms, there may be produced a "reaction." This may take the form of "a large, indurated, reddish papule" which in a pew days become of a dark, bluish-red colour; or the inflammation may be of a severer type, resulting in a "pustule." A positive result is more frequently obtained when the disease is of long standing, or comparatively inactive. But may not this "reaction" occur in every case, whether or not the individual has ever been affected by the diseas? Anyone can see that if this "reaction" manifests itself in ALL cases, the luetin test has no value whatever. And it was in the prosecution of this phase of research that certain experiments upon human beings were made, which have been criticized. Dr. Noguchi and other physicians injected this luetin emulsion containing the dead germs of syphilis, not only into persons presumed once to have been affected by the loathsome disease, but also into the bodies of 146 other persons, INCLUDING CHILDREN, ENTIRELY FREE FROM THE DISEASE. It would seem that he was advised by an American physician to make his experiments on human beings rather than upon animals. He tells us: