What people of science are ready to go to in order to prove their theories, and not always correct ones.
You can't even imagine what scientists are ready to go to in order to confirm their theory! "Laba" tells about dangerous (and sometimes ridiculous) experiments that doctors carried out on themselves in search of ways to combat various diseases.
1. Microbial soup: Max Pettenkofer against cholera
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection. It is transmitted through food and water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae. Disease symptoms: profuse watery diarrhea and very often vomiting. In severe form and without treatment, a person can die from dehydration.
In 1883, the German microbiologist Robert Koch discovered the causative agent of cholera - Vibrio cholerae. But not all researchers agreed that it was this microorganism that causes a terrible disease, the epidemics of which at that time claimed the lives of millions of people around the world.
Promotional video:
One such scientist was Max Pettenkofer. He believed that the mechanism of transmission of cholera, discovered by Koch, is too simple. Pettenkofer said: for the full development of the disease, a number of other factors are needed, from the composition of the soil in the city where the epidemic arose, to the state of the patient's intestines and stomach.
In order to prove his theory, Pettenkofer decided on a risky experiment, which took place in great secrecy.
Three days later, he developed enteritis symptoms, indicating that the cholera vibrios were working. But already on October 16, the microbes disappeared, and this was confirmed by microscopic examination of feces. Pettenkofer himself felt good again a week after the infection. Naturally, after this experiment, the scientist was convinced of the correctness of his theories.
Now we understand that Koch was right, and Pettenkofer, most likely, was sent an old and weakened culture of bacteria, guessing what he was going to do. But Pettenkofer's delusions do not diminish the courage of this scientist, who is ready to go all the way in the name of truth.
2. Purulent experiment: John Hunter against syphilis
Syphilis, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases of modern times, is caused by bacteria - Treponema pallidum (Treponema pallidum). The disease has many manifestations and can cause serious complications if left untreated.
Until almost the middle of the 19th century, it was customary to think that gonorrhea and syphilis are different manifestations of the same disease. In 1767, John Hunter put the experiment on his own.
Thus, Hunter seemed to prove the theory of a single source of gonorrhea and syphilis - and greatly slowed down the development of venereology. In fact, Hunter was simply unlucky: he took secretions from a man who had both gonorrhea and syphilis. It's just that the symptoms of syphilis have not yet appeared.
3. Vomit Bath and Killer Mosquitoes: Walter Reed and Stubbins Firth Against Yellow Fever
Yellow fever is caused by the Viscerophilus tropicus virus, which is transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes. Fever is characterized by fever, general weakness, vomiting, and sometimes jaundice. Hence the name of the disease.
For the correct treatment of the disease, it was important for scientists to understand the path of its transmission. Many doctors conducted experiments on themselves, but the final point on the transmission of the virus was put by a commission of four doctors: Aristide Agramonte, James Carroll, Jesse Lazier and Walter Reed. This commission began its experiments by allowing mosquitoes who drank the blood of patients to bite them and other volunteers.
On September 13, 1900, Lasir was working in a hospital, and a mosquito sat on his arm. The doctor did not know if the insect had bitten yellow fever patients, but he deliberately did not drive him off his hand. After 5 days, the doctor fell ill, and on September 25, he died.
After this incident, experiments began to be carried out systematically, and the theory of doctors was confirmed. Later, the commission revealed that the injection of the blood of a sick person into a healthy person also leads to the development of the disease. Thus, it was proved that the causative agent of yellow fever is contained in human blood and is transmitted by a special type of mosquito. Also known and, frankly, the eccentric experiments of the American Stubbins Firth.
After vomiting, Firth began experimenting with blood, saliva, and urine. But, surprisingly, the doctor remained healthy! Later it turned out that Firth took biological material for experiments from patients in the late stages of the disease, when their biological fluids were no longer infectious.
4.11 dog pricks: Emerich Ullmann against rabies
Rabies is caused by the Rabies virus, which is transmitted to humans through the bites and scratches of sick animals (more precisely, through their saliva). Rabies has a rather long incubation period, but when the first clinical symptoms appear, the probability of death increases sharply. A person can be saved by a timely vaccine.
The very vaccine against rabies was developed by the French biologist Louis Pasteur, but despite successful experiments on dogs, the scientific community still had concerns about the use of the vaccine in humans. The German scientist Robert Koch and his students believed, for example, that if a healthy person was vaccinated, he would die from the virus contained in the vaccine.
This statement was verified by the Austrian surgeon Emerich Ullmann, who came to Pasteur in 1885 and declared that he was so confident in the results of his work that he was ready to volunteer and give himself an injection of the vaccine.
Before returning to Vienna, Ullmann received from Pasteur a rabbit inoculated with the rabies virus as a gift. The animal provided material for the production of Austrian grafts.
5. Paralysis or vaccine: Jonas Salk against polio
Poliomyelitis is caused by the Poliovirus hominis virus. It is spread from person to person through dirty hands, contaminated water and food. The virus attacks the nervous system and causes paralysis.
1955 saw a breakthrough in the development of a polio vaccine. American virologist Jonas Salk has developed a live attenuated vaccine. In order to present the vaccine to the public, Salk needed to conduct an experiment on humans.
These people risked being paralyzed for life or even perishing. But the experiment was successful and the vaccine became available for use.
6. The Mouse Threat: Sydney Levinson Against Dysentery
Dysentery is caused by bacteria of the genus Shigella (not to be confused with amoebic dysentery). The disease affects the human intestines and is manifested by diarrhea, often bloody.
At the end of World War II, an epidemic of dysentery broke out in the Philippines, and entire divisions fell ill with American soldiers stationed there. The development of an anti-dysentery serum has become a strategic goal. Scientists from the United States developed the first serum, but when tested on mice, it proved to be too toxic, the animals died. It was necessary to find out whether the serum would be equally detrimental to a stronger human body.
Thus, the serum passed the test and could be recommended as a remedy for bacillary dysentery.
7. Radioactive compress: Pierre Curie against cancer
In 1903, French scientist Pierre Curie and his wife Marie Skłodowska-Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research in the field of radiation.
Pierre and Marie Curie believed that radium's burning capacity could be useful in the treatment of malignant tumors. These experiments caused the painful death of the spouses. However, they also made possible the use of radium in medicine.
8. Stink: Barry Marshall Against Stomach Ulcers
Gastritis and stomach ulcers are among the most common pathologies among diseases of the digestive system. For a long time, doctors believed that an unhealthy lifestyle and stress caused stomach ulcers, but Barry Marshall and Robin Warren put forward the theory that a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori is to blame. It was necessary to prove this experimentally and a healthy volunteer was required.
In one of his interviews, Marshall said: at that time he was the only person who was ready to participate in the experiment.
The discovery of Marshall and Warren turned the doctors' idea of the pathogenesis of stomach ulcers upside down and radically changed antiulcer therapy. For this, the scientists were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Grigory Olivenbaum
