R-5-78 

           Courrier (7) complained that, because of a campaign of disparagement, no French “cancerologists” offered to repeat these experiments. Shortlived cooperation was however forthcoming from an English laboratory.  According to one account (2), cancerous mice were sent over to Priore's establishment and some healthy ones were later sent from there to England, but the latter were not the ones that had been sent for treatment.  The anonymous director of the English laboratory withdrew his cooperation, though not without providing "a French colleague" with a detailed memorandum.  In 1977 Courrier (7) issued his own account of the episode and identified the persons concerned.  The director was the late Sir Alexander Haddow (Institute of Cancer Research, Royal Cancer Hospital, Univ. of London), and his envoys to Floirac were E. Whisson and Dr. and Mrs. E.J. Arnbrose, the latter being scientists of some repute.  Courrier was evidently not persuaded that any substitution had taken place, for he wrote that the rumor was put about: “on fait courir le bruit...”

            The discovery of specific anti-tumor immunity in the treated animals may have lent force to the hunch that the Priore radiation might act upon the immune system of the host rather than directly upon the cancer cells. At any rate, Professor Raymond Pautrizel, a parasitologist already associated with the work of Rivière and Guérin, exposed mice after they had been injected with a dose of Trypanosoma equiperdum sufficient to kill them within five days if untreated, and they all survived (13). At this point extraordinary measures were taken to re move all suspicion of fraud.. The experiments were repeated successfully under lock and key and under the eye of a bailiff appointed by a Com mission de Contrôle composed of university officials and local dignitaries.  The official report was certified by all the members of the Commission. A positive result obtained under such conditions, said Courrier (7), should have put an end to all criticism from men of good faith.

            In a further series of short papers in the Comptes rendus (14) (15) (16) this indirect effect upon the immune system of animals infected with T. equiperdum was confirmed and elaborated.  These brief published statements represent a lot of work: just how much was apparent from a lecture given by Pautrizel during my visit to Floirac.  When I asked about his plan to publish the evidence in detail, he told me that he had not found a journal willing to accept such a manuscript.

            The evidence presented, furnished by experiments on mice (13) (14) (16), rats (14) and rabbits (15) , follows fairly conventional lines which I shall not attempt to review in detail.  Briefly:  the pathogenic organisms disappeared from the treated animals, which survived indefinitely.  In rare cases where the parasites reappeared, they were of a different antigenic type from these causing the original infection.  Treatment brought about an intense acquired immunity.  Some animals were reinfected 7 times over a period of 6 months, eventually with 100 times the original, and otherwise invariably fatal, dose.  Multiple reinfection resulted in a high titer of agglutinating antibodies. The blood of these animals conferred upon other normal animals an immunity which persisted for about 45 days.  Treatment with an immunosuppressor,

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