The relevance to medical science of doctors’ self-challenge experiments with pathogens or infectious agents: 1767-2022
Main Article Content
Keywords
Self-challenge, self-experiment, pathogens, doctors, infectious agents
Abstract
Self-experimentation by medical doctors was a well-recognized research practice during the 18th and 19th centuries. This paper explores its contribution to the development of medical and public health practices by comprehensively collating, chronologically and by pathogenic group, reports of self-experimentation with infectious material and pathogens between the years 1767 and 2022. Tabulation of these events, which focuses primarily on physicians, provides a basis for understanding how the purpose of self-experimentation changed as medical knowledge developed. Reports are tabulated by year of experiment, country, investigator, experimental method, and clinical outcome. 43 self-challenge studies were conducted pre-1874 before proof of the germ theory of disease was accepted, mainly to investigate contagion. Results were often conflicting and anti-contagion views hindered acceptance of quarantine measures for yellow fever, cholera, and plague. Post-1874, 140 self-experiments took place, 17 with different parasites, 27 with different bacterial pathogens, and nine with different viruses or infectious agents, with peak frequency between 1891-1900. When specific agents of disease were known, anti-contagion theory was challenged, and experimental evidence used to explain clinical and disease patterns. Early study designs were limited as host immunity was not well understood. The reasons for putting oneself at great risk varied, although doctors were expected to set an example. Gradually their personal involvement declined in favour of consented volunteers, and reliance on a sample size of one became unacceptable.
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42. Oriel JD. Eminent venereologists. 3. Philippe Record. Genitourin Med, 1989; 65:388–93.
43. Hanley A. Syphilisation and its discontents: experimental inoculation against syphilis at The London Hospital. Bull Hist Med 2017; 91:1–32.
44. Grassi B. Noto interno ad alcuni parassiti dell'uomo III. Interno all'Ascaris lumbricoides. Gaz. Osp. Milano 1881; 2:432.
45. Koino S. Experimental infection of the human body with ascarides. Jpn Med. World 1922; 15:317–20.
46. Grassi GB, Parona C, Parona E. Intorno all’Anchilostoma duodenale (Dubini), Gazzetta Medica Italiana Lombardia, 1878; 38:193–6.
47. Boycott AE, Haldane JS. An outbreak of ankylostomiasis in England, No II, J Hyg 1904; 4:73–111.
48. Loos A. Zur Lebensgeschichte des Ankylostoma duodenale. Centralblatt fӥr Bacteriologie und Paristenkunde, 1898; 24:441–88.
49. Ross R. Memoirs, with a Full Account of the Great Malaria Problem and its Solution. London: John Murray; 1923.
50. Manson-Bahr P. The Jubilee of Sir Patrick Manson (1878-1938): A tribute to his work on the malaria problem, Postgrad Med J 1938; 14(157):345–57.
51. Clyde DF. Immunization of man against falciparum malaria, Am J Med Sci 1973; 266:169–77.
52. Taute M. Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Volume III, Leipzig; 1920.
53. Taute M, Huber F. Die Unterscheidung des Trypanosoma rhodesiense von Trypanosoma brucei, Arch Schiff. u. tropenhyg 1919; 23 (11):211–26.
54. Barlow CH. Experimental ingestion of the ova of Fasciolopsis buski, also the ingestion of adult Fasciolopsis buski for the purpose of artificial infestation, J Parasit 1921; 8:40–4.
55. Barlow CH, Meleney HE. A voluntary infection with Schistosoma haematobium. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1949; 29:79–87.
56. Pampiglione S, Giannetto S. Calandruccio S. Unparassitologo siciliano del secoloscorso, sperimentatore su se stesso. Riv Parassitol 1997; 58:5–27.
57. Pampiglione S, Giannetto S. The Grassi-Calandruccio controversy. Who is wrong? Who is right? J Med Biography 2001; 9(2):81–6.
58. Medina C, Mestanza E, Arce J, Alcedán M, Miranda R, Montero M. La verruga peruana y Daniel A Carrión, Lima: Imprenta del Estado, Estudiante de la Faculdad de Medicina Muerto el 5 Octubre de 1885, Lima, Imprenta del estado, calle de la rifa n.58; 1886.
59. Pamo OG. Daniel Carrion’s experiment: the use of self-infection in the advance of medicine. R Coll Physicians Edin 2012; 42:81–6.
60. Kuczyński-Godard M. La autoexpérience de Professor Max Kuczyński-Godard. La Reforma Medica (Lima) 1937; 23:758–78.
61. Bumm E. Ueber einen abscessbildenden Diploccocus, Sitzungs-Berichte der Physikalisch-medicinischen Gezellschaft zu Wurzburg, 1885:1–7.
62. Bockhart M. ӥber die Äetiologie und therapie der impetigop, des furunkels, und der sykosis. Dermatologie, 1885; 6:450–71.
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May 23, 2024
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The relevance to medical science of doctors’ self-challenge experiments with pathogens or infectious agents: 1767-2022. Med Histor [Internet]. 2024 May 23 [cited 2024 Jun. 30];8(1):e2024010. Available from: https://mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/MedHistor/article/view/15464
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Author Biographies
Bernard Brabin , Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK; Global Child Health Group, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Professor Emeritus of International Child Health
Loretta Brabin, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, University of Manchester, UK
Honorary Professor of Adolescent Health
How to Cite
1.
The relevance to medical science of doctors’ self-challenge experiments with pathogens or infectious agents: 1767-2022. Med Histor [Internet]. 2024 May 23 [cited 2024 Jun. 30];8(1):e2024010. Available from: https://mattioli1885journals.com/index.php/MedHistor/article/view/15464