Case 1:—Hookworms: None. Trichuris: 11.
Case 2:—Hookworms: None. Trichuris: 19. Ascaris: 2.
Case 3:—Hookworms: None. Trichuris: 30. Ascaris: 2.
Our experiences with all six cases showed that injections of chenopodium have little effect intramuscularly on hookworm, and no effect on that parasite when given intravenously. But in both ways it had a marked effect on trichuris.
Why was this? Obviously the answer must be in the habits of the two parasites. The hookworm is a superficial feeder, sucking blood from the surface of the gut. The whipworm has a very long head which he buries half an inch into the intestinal wall; possibly he fed only on lymph, which may have taken up a heavier charge of the chenopodium. Ordinarily the whipworm is very resistant to chenopodium, as to all vermifuges. Yet here he showed a high mortality to the drug when it was administered through a new route. Whereas the hookworm, which is affected by chenopodium given in the usual way, showed a high resistance to it in the new method.
I had no time to continue experiments, which were interesting because they were the first attempt to give anthelmintics by intramuscular or intravenous injections, a new route for treating intestinal parasites. Superficially at least, I had settled an argument which had arisen among investigators with more claims to learning than my own. I had established that the action of chenopodium is by direct contact with the hookworm in the gut, not by absorption in the blood stream and subsequent absorption by the parasite. The experimental cases showed that fact clearly, and still more clearly revealed that chenopodium in intramuscular and intravenous injections has a decided effect on whipworm. For the latter there is no other satisfactory treatment. I made these tests without the sanction of the Rockefeller Foundation, whose letterhead should bear the motto, “We Do Not Experiment with Human Beings.” When 61 Broadway learned of what I had been doing there might have been trouble for me, but Dr. Maurice C. Hall, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washington, became my advocate. In a later chapter I shall have much more to say about this Dr. Hall: we are indebted to him for one of the world’s great medical discoveries.
And by the way, my experimental cannibals never went to the gallows. After leaving New Guinea I learned that another flu epidemic had struck the hospital. I was rather glad that the six of them died in bed and could go to the Happy Land with all their vertebrae in good order.
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I hated to leave the native hospital, which had taught me so many valuable things with which to carry on. I had been working in team with the lik-lik doctors and was more than pleased with the technical progress they were making.
Nobody could have blamed Governor Wisdom if he had gone stark staring mad under the pressure of territorial politics. He kept his reason, did his work well, and was retired with a title. The white population was more of a problem than the black; this new government was still in the grab-bag period, every hand feeling out for a prize—anything from an island to a fruit cake.
At one of the Governor’s receptions, the fine house on the hill was all in party trim. At an end of the great hall there was a long table, heavy with cakes, sandwiches and bon-bons. After a pleasant hour, Eloisa and I were about to say good-by, but were waiting for our car to drive up in the rain. A minor official’s wife sidled over to the big table and said to Eloisa, “Look at those beautiful cakes. I’m going to give a party myself tomorrow.” Fitting action to words, she slipped an eighteen-inch fruitcake under her raincoat. We were at the door, telling General and Mrs. Wisdom what a nice party it had been, when the lady with the raincoat joined us. “Oh, Governor, such a lovely time....” Her hand went out and the fruitcake slipped. Splunk! it messed all over the polished floor at the Governor’s feet. Still holding his hand, she trilled, “I wonder where that came from!” And fluttered away to her car.
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