IN HUMANITY’S CAUSE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3765, 11 May 1926, Page 26

IN HUMANITY’S CAUSE.

INFANTILE PARALYSIS RESEARCH. ANIMAL MARTYRS TO SCIENCE. Most of us know the monkey as an entertainer of no mean ability, whether in the circus, in the menagerie or as a necessary adjunct to a barrel organ. From time immemorial Ins whimsical half-human expression and his fantastic contortions have given delight to sueceding generations of youngsters, and grown-ups as well. It is doubtful, however, if many who know the monkey merely as the comedian of tho animal kingdom, have ever given a thought to the important part he plays in medical research, and in the assisting in the discovery of the source of many insidious disease, and the finding of a means to arrest their ravages Last year, when the epidemic of infantile paralysis swept the country, medical science was puzzled. Its source, its action and its ultimate ertect were all shrouded in mystery. and although it was known that this dread malady attacked different persons in different ways, and although a few fairly satisfactory cures were effected,- a preventive had to be found, an anti-toxin wh:ch would kill the germ of the disease at its inception. To this end the Government voted £2OOO to be used for the purpose of investigating the cause and prevention of this mysterious disease Possibly because it most nearly approximated the human being m many of its characteristics, the monkeys was found to be peculiarly adapted for this line of research, and curiously enough it was also found to be the only animal which was susceptible to infantile paralysis. Monkeys were therefore procured by the Health Department for the purpose of experiment in the bacteriological laboratories of the Dunedin Medical School, and already much valuable data has been gleaned from their various reactions to the bacciilus of the disease. The method of inoculating the monkeys is interesting and require much care, patience. and skill. A portion of the spinal chord and brain of a patient who has succumbed to the malady are placed in 75 per cent, glycerine, which has the effect of killing all other organisms but the germ of infantile paralysis. It is then ground up in a sterilised mortar with sterilized sand, and dissolved in a liquid. The resultant solution is passed through a filter, and so infinitesimal is the gerin that it also makes its way through the clay. The fluid having been thus obtained, the time comes for the monkey to do his part. Placed on a small operating table in a. spotlessly clean theatre, he is trephined—that is, a small circular piece of bone is removed from his skull without disturbing the inside membrane. A charge of the germ-laden fluid is then hypodermically injected into his brain, and the patient goes free, to be kept under close observation, in the large well-ventilated monkey house. Tickets recording the date of each injection are attached to his cage for the guidance of the investigators, and so from day to dav. the experiments go on. From these injections and a close scrutiny of their effect, it is hoped to fir’d a means not only to cure but eventually to prevent the deadly scourge which is Incoming such a menace to the younger generation of the present day. At present the supply of monkeys is small, there being only five in the monkey house. Their number, however, will be shortly increased, as 11 more have been landed from Calcutta at Auckland to be forwarded to this city. Those at present housed at tho Medical School appear contended enough, notwithstanding the fact that some of them have already been inoculated. Oui’ representative was last week introduced to them all—Molly. Uncle, Spider, Marcus, and one quizzical little chap whose name he could not catch.—and they were, so far as he could see, just ordinary monkeys. Nevertheless, they are all making a very real sacrifice in the cause of suffering humanity.