BUBONIC PLAGUE CURE

Evening Star, Issue 18925, 27 April 1925, Page 5

BUBONIC PLAGUE CURE

There is only one cure For the blackplague, that terrifying scourge which has broken out at intervals since medieval times. And there is only one plane m the United States where this cure, may be had.

At tho H. K, Mulfovd laboratories, just outside Philadelphia, a supply 01 the precious serum is kept, awaiting the call of the next city or town to he stricken. Tho last time it was used was in 1915, when the plague, broke out in New Orleans, And recently, when it became virulent in Los Angeles, the Alulford laboratories caused a thrill of admiration by the speed and efficiency \vit« which they responded. The call for help came hurtling o\ei tho wires, ami in less than twenty-four hours after the disease had been identified 500 vials of the serum had been rushed to New York by automobile and was on a mail airplane speeding Toward the quarantined area. Contrast this with the Middle Ages, says the Philadelphia ‘ Record,’ when people afflicted could only lie in the streets and die. in those nays tho Black Death wiped out whole cities, and half the population of Europe and the Orient were destroyed. There was no serum then; no means of lighting the mysterious disease. Tho stricken peouie of great cities just lay down in the streets and died. And if there had been such serum there were not tho means of swift communication nor of magic transportation that were called into service last November to help a stricken sister city. Dr John Reichel, director of the Mulford Biological Laboratories, states that people should be interested not only in the serum, which is tho cure for the plague, but also in the vaccine which prevents its spreading. The disease iu Los Angelos took mo worst form —the pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs and brings death within eight Lours. There was always the grave danger of its spreading throughout California and eastward, and the only preventive was strict quarantine and wholesale vaccination, Both tlio serum and the vaccine are developed from horses, Dr Reichel explains. These animals are selected without regard to color or kind so long as they are healthy. They are held in quarantine for two weeks, and careful tests are made for tuberculosis or glanders. They are then inoculated with small doses of the killed plague germs, bo small as to be absolutely harmless to the horse. The doses are gradually increased, until the animal is ready tor a dose of live germs. This develops the serum in the blood, which is drawn olt and bottled. Two-thirds of an ounce constitutes a dose, and 5,000 doses may he drawn in a week. After it is bottled it is allowed to stand, and the dear scrum, which is the potent agent, rises to tho top. This is again drawn off and placed in reserve under, the most carefully sterilised conditions.'

About 250 horses arc kept at the laboratories. Dr Keichel says horses alO used because they are easy to handle, and because they give a large quantity of blood.

Toe scrums and vaccines held in readiness to bo rushed wherever needed are by no means a business proposition. 'Here ;s no profit in this end of the work done here. Happily, plague serums are not often needed, and the slocks on hand often become too old lor effectiveness, and have to lie thrown away to be replaced by new ones.

Dr Reichel was asked where the germs for those serums were first obtained. “ From India, years ago,” was the reply. “ The seed is kept alive and grown on a gelatine slice. These plague germs are as distinct from other germs gs an elephant is at the zoo. As tho perms grow they are killed by heating, and are then injected into the horses as a preparation fo 1 ’ tho live germs which dev pop tho serum. Or they are injected into human beings as a vaccine to immunise them from the disease.

The serum, which is known as the Yci'sin scrum, was first developed in the Pasteur institute, France, in 1896. It is effective only in the milder or bubonic form of the plague. Whim th? disease reaches the pneumonic state and the lungs are affected there is no known cure.

“ The bubonic plague is a germ disease, and was undoubtedly carried liy squirrels in California,” Dr Reiehel says. " A hunter might easily have contracted it from these animals, and as it was transmitted from one to another it, became more and more virulent, until it took the pneumonic form.” Bubonic plagues at other times have been carried by rats, and sailors coming from the Orient are very likely to bring the disease in a milder form.

The It. K. Mnlford Company holds a sperm! license from the United hi ales Public Health Service. The entire country must look to them in a crisis. They arc constantly experimenting with other serums and vaccines, and have, treatments for many tropical diseases, including snake bites. During the war troops were stationed at MnlfonTs ready to rush each day’s supply of invaluable scrums to ships to carry them to the front.