21,1 Perkins: Drugs for the Treatment of Leprosy 13 
(clupanodonic and others) which have not been so fully in- 
vestigated.2? These characteristic acids all have the property 
of unsaturation, which has been previously discussed in con- 
nection with chaulmoogra oil. 
The sodium morrhuate used in the experiments of the Com- 
mittee on Leprosy Investigation has been prepared by Rogers’s 
method.”* . 
This consists in making the sodium soap of cod-liver oil 
and extracting with ether to remove irritating substances. 
A 3 per cent solution has been used, principally by intravenous 
injection. 
COD-LIVER OIL ETHYL ESTERS 
This preparation has been recommended by Rogers ** as being 
less irritating than chaulmoogra ethyl esters. The committee 
obtained the opposite result, probably because of differences in 
the methods of preparation. The addition of 2 per cent iodine, 
however, seems to destroy the irritating constituents, so this 
mixture is now being used by the committee. 
CONCLUSION 
In conclusion, the writer wishes to point out that the success 
recently attained in the treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis 
with drugs derived from certain oils is encouraging, not only in 
itself but also in the prospect for improvement that it promises. 
If Walker’s idea of the absorption of toxic fatty substances by 
acid-fast bacilli is correct, it should be easy to make in the labor- 
atory a much more effective drug by properly combining a toxic 
element like arsenic or antimony with a fatty acid. If Rogers’s 
idea of the efficacy of unsaturation in general proves to be 
correct, oils may be used that are much more unsaturated than 
chaulmoogra oil. The conclusions as to the value of the various 
drugs described above must of course be deferred to the medical 
report of the committee, but it may be stated that the intra- 
muscular ethyl ester treatment has been decided upon for the 
main routine treatment at Culion Leper Colony. About 200 
liters (40,000 doses) per month are now being manufactured 
at the Bureau of Science for that purpose. 
™ Lewkowitsch, J., Chemical Technology and Analysis of Oils, Fats & 
Waxes. London 2 (1914) 424. 
* Rogers, L., Brit. Med. Journ. 2 (1919) 426; Ind. Journ. Med. Res., 
Special number, 7 (1919) 238. 
” Rogers, L., Ind. Med. Gaz. 55 (1920) 127. 
