The chronicle of medication is filled with hero who sound that extra step for science , heroically drinking vomit taint with jaundiced fever to see how it spread orpumping atomic number 1 flatulence up their own anusto see if that ’s a estimable style of locating heater lesion .
One such man , though less known for rationality that will become apparent later , was Claude Barlow . Barlow was a Doctor of the Church and researcher who was concerned in schistosomiasis , a painful , chronic , and occasionally fateful disease caused bytrematode worms of the genusSchistosoma . The disease – as he was about to experience for himself on one trip to Egypt in July 1944 – can cause everything from abdominal hurting , nausea , and vomiting to anorexia , diarrhea , andbloody stools .
Barlow ’s research pertain whether US troops could potentially fetch the infection back with them , and taint US snailsas a second emcee . After attempts to send US snails ( via snail mail ) to himself failed because they maintain dying in transit , he took it upon himself – knowing full well how nasty the disease could be – to sit down and become the gasbag and deliver them back home himself . He placed224 schistosome larvae on his armover the course of 21 day to let them in .
This was n’t his first rodeo . He had transfer epenthetic worm inside himself from China , measuredly infecting himself for studyFasciolopsis buski . When he come back home , he distributed the worms from his own bowel ( via the common route ) toremarkably pleased colleagues . Postcards seem implausibly orthodox compare to whipping out a deadly parasite .
TheSchistosomaworms , however , were not as pleasant .
He and Billy – a baboon he hadalso fill with the parasite – headed home to the US , the only major incident being that Billy escape and scared the other passengers .
Barlow was already feeling inauspicious when the baboon incident took lieu , going through sweats and vertiginous spells , but this was just the first . Eleven calendar week after his initial contagion , Barlow developed a fever and he began blurt bollock in his ( now chocolate-brown ) come . This was probably hard to rivet on , given his sickness , difficulty breathing , and blood line in his water .
Three months into his trial by ordeal , his scrotum began " exuding blood serum " , and he began move massive febricity . His vesica was in great distress , and he had to urinate roughly every 20 minutes .
Despite this , he was dictated to hold on with the experiment and not look for medical treatment – even though Billy had died of bilharzia , which is , at best , a bad prodigy . He gave patches of his peel to be studied , removed without anaesthetic in guinea pig it trouble the parasites , which was a destiny more courtesy than they were giving him .
Realizing how dangerous his post was , he eventually returned to Egypt in decree to seek handling : A highly toxic and high-risk drug that can cause vascular collapse . It damage his heart , but a year and a one-half after give himself the infection , he finally stopped leak out ball out of his various fluid and solids .
unluckily , his Universitydidn’t have the snailsfor him to carry his experiment , and so it was all ultimately pointless . A fellow had attempted to infect what few snails were availableand failed .
In total , he had passed a whopping12,000 eggs a dayfor no cause at all , other than medicinehadn’t known beforehandthat they could be ejaculate , which is quite difficult to chalk up as a profits .
