GUATEMALA EXPERIMENTS 1946-1948 
II 
“[a]s you can imagine we are all holding our breaths, and we are explaining 
to the patients and others concerned with but a few key exceptions that the 
treatment is a new one utilizing serum followed by penicillin. This double talk 
keeps me hopping at times.” 485 
There are also several noted examples of psychiatric patients actively objecting 
to the experiments. For example, one subject “fled the room” after being 
subjected to scarification of the penis, and he was not found for several 
hours. 486 Dr. Cutler reported further that it was difficult to examine the 
women’s abdomens, breasts, or backs “as a result of local prejudices against 
male viewing of the body, even by physicians...” 487 Dr. Cutler also admitted 
that under their “stated studies” there was “no good reason which could be 
offered [to the women] to explain the necessity for complete examinations.” 488 
Therefore, he wrote, “[i]t was unfortunately not feasible to attempt mucosal 
inoculation in the female genitalia to compare the male with the female.” 489 
Injection and Contact Method 
In May 1947, the researchers began their 
artificial inoculation syphilis experi- 
ments in the Psychiatric Hospital with 
two different exposure methods using the 
injection technique that was employed 
in the Penitentiary as well, and the 
“contact” method that Drs. Mahoney 
and Arnold used previously in rabbit 
experiments. 490 Dr. Arnold had explained 
This is the syphilitic chancre of a female psychiatric how best to expose the subjects via 
subject who was exposed to syphilis twice, received 
some treatment, and later passed away. contact method in a letter to Dr. Cutler 
From the National Archives and , 
Records Administration in April. Dr. Cutler used this method 
because both he and Dr. Mahoney felt that it was the procedure most “closely 
approximating” normal sexual intercourse. 492 During the “contact method”: 
“[A] cotton pledget was placed at the frenum and moistened with 
varying amounts of suspension and at intervals, dependent upon 
the experiment. The pledget was moistened by dropping the fluid 
through a 25 gauge needle onto the pledget. The foreskin was 
replaced to normal position concealing the pledget entirely.” 493 
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