Sleeper Cure

Dr. Frederic James Farnell of Providence, R. I., last week reported that he had gained a measure of success in treating sleeping sickness by the use of a hypertonic solution of iodine.

Treatment depended upon his observation that the brains of people who die of sleeping sickness are relatively waterlogged, and upon the fact that his hypertonic iodine solution demanded water in quantities. He injected his iodine (which was not poisonous) directly into the blood of patients sick with brain lethargy. Through the blood the iodine drained water from the brain.

This is Dr. Farnell's theory. Of 38 sleeping sickness cases he has treated, only two have died. Seven have recovered completely; four are approaching recovery; the rest seem to be improving. This is an excellent record for cures of a high-death-rate disease. The death rate is 21% generally, 50% in epidemics, according to tabulations of Dr. Herbert H. Waite of the University of Nebraska.