Tag Archives: larval migrans

August 21, 1924

Jacksonville
Thursday Nite

My Dear Ina,

Your letter was a good one even though it was not so long. It had a few cheerful remarks which hit the spot. You don’t know how much better one feels when he is working his head off to find out something, when along comes a letter telling him that it’s a chance for him to “make good.” Best of all is to know that you have confidence in me and that you are “even proud of me.” You couldn’t have said anything to have given me more encouragement and, Dear, I needed it too, for it seems that this thing has been unraveled slowly. It is so different from what anyone would expect and in fact is not a problem of an entomologist, though I have made it one. I have about established evidence that the thing is a spirochaete, which might come under the work of either a bacteriologist or a protozoologist. I hope that I can establish sufficient proof before returning and I will unless some new findings upset everything. This can hardly happen as I worked with a process of eliminating the things it might have been, and then hit upon this. I haven’t heard from Mr. Bishopp since I wired him a few days ago, but I’ll probably hear tomorrow. I shipped some slides for examination in Washington and he is probably waiting until someone identifies them. I would not be surprised to find that this thing is entirely new from a standpoint of description as I cannot find one that describes it. I do know that it fits into that group and I trust that they won’t find two different kinds as this would make it more complicated to work with. By the time Mr. Bishopp gets here I hope to have it all worked out so I can lay my cards on the table.

August 21, 1924

August 21, 1924

Am sorry that you found the mosquitoes so annoying on your camping trip, but it takes something of this kind to make us appreciate the otherwise delightful nights. An automobile trip is more fun, when it is completed, if we had some trouble, but of course we don’t think so at the time the trouble happens. No doubt you enjoy home comforts a great deal more since you returned.

I hope that you have sent the negatives that I asked you for as I really want them and will return them. I keep the small pictures in my desk and find myself admiring them quite frequently. Can’t help it. When I see the pictures I always think that there is bound to be something to a girl who can work in a tax collectors office and at the same time win an automobile in a newspaper contest*. The odds were certainly not in your favor, for I know what it means to meet the public on that basis. You have a personality that does it. Usually, a real pretty girl is aware of the fact, having been reminded of it so many times, and they lose the personal charms which would otherwise develop a lot of personal magnetism. I am telling you what I really think without any reservation, because I know that it doesn’t “go to your head.”

Must get some sleep now for that is one requisite to good work.

Kindest regards to all and pleasant dreams.

Always
Walter

*Ina won a contest by selling more newspaper subscriptions than anyone else, and the prize was a brand-new Willys-Knight roadster Touring car. Because there were so few cars around at the time, licensing was non-existent. When states did finally issue drivers’ licenses, they started by simply giving one to everybody who owned a car, which is how Ina initially got hers. She didn’t take a driving test until she was in her 80s.

August 13, 1924

Jacksonville, Fla.
Aug 13, 1924

My Dear Ina,

Yours came this morning and it did me a world of good all day. I am by myself for a few days, as Dr. K.S. went to Tenn. for a little visit with the family. The dope I have been getting during the past two days tends to increase the possibilities in this investigation, and you can imagine what the effect is. Just about the time it looked as though I had the dope on the origin of cases, I get records of cases occurring away from where any one lives. It makes one feel that he don’t know so much about it after all. This usually happens on a problem study, and it takes a nice letter from a little girl just like you to make everything seem rosy. I always enjoy your letters so much, and it seems that I’ve known you always.

August 13, 1924

August 13, 1924

I, too, wish that I could have been with you at the “shut in.” I’ve got something to tell you when I see you.

I often look at the Kodak pictures and I would like very much to borrow your negatives for two of them. One of yourself sitting on the ground and the other a standing profile with your left hand near your waist line, palm out. Can you figure out which two? If not, send as many as you like and I’ll pick out the two I would like to borrow. These two would enlarge to a 5×7 inch size very nicely and as the photo man here is unusually good I’d like to have him make them for me. Will have him make an extra for yourself and your mother. I hope you can find them for I really want them and will be looking for them in your next letter. Please.

It was too bad about your friend’s accident, and I am sorry for him. It might have been his fiance.

I am certainly in hopes that I can see you next month and it is possible that I’ll be there. I’ll know when Mr. Bishopp comes down. There has been no allotment or appropriation for this work and it is possible that he will not care to divert other money for this purpose. We had in mind to determine the scope of the field of work and having found that it came within the domain of our Bureau, to ask for special funds next year. We do not yet know whether the project should be ours or not, but we hope to know before long. On the face of it, it would naturally seem to be our field, but we may find that it logically falls under some other Bureau’s work. It may be a co-operative project with some other Bureau, but I hope not for that simply means dividing the credit for the work with some one else. Dr. K.S. says he “don’t give a damn” if some other Bureau is supposed to do it, he wants me here, and if necessary will go thru his senator to have me attached to the Bureau under whose domain the work naturally falls. He says we can work it out and that we won’t need any other assistance.

It is really an important problem and every one who knows the disease is anxious to help in any way possible. Lots of them have spent more than a hundred dollars for treatments which were only partly satisfactory. Several months have been required in some cases. The thing is absolutely new in literature as there has been nothing published to give the least idea of the cause.

I do not work with a fear of getting the creeping eruption, for our treatment is so effective and simple that I can use it as a preventive. In fact the treatment is too simple to be profitable to the medical profession.

I hope to have a nice long letter from you soon, Dear, if I may call you this.

Kind regards to all, I am,

Sincerely
Walter.

August 11, 1924

Monday Nite Aug 11th

My Dear Ina,

It was mighty fine to get your letter and you are so sweet to write nice ones. They are always cheerful and make me feel that I am real fortunate to have such a nice little girl friend.

August 11, 1924

August 11, 1924

My work has been keeping me on the go and about the only thing I have stopped for, was to eat and sleep. My colleague, Dr. K.S., left me Saturday, and will be gone most of this week. He went to Tennessee to spend a few days with the family. I am enjoying his vacation too, for I do have a breathing spell once in a while now, though I keep on the go. He is about the most energetic man I ever met and while it is a real pleasure to work with him, he goes about twice as fast as anyone else. He wanted me to send a night letter every night about the work, but I finally convinced him that every two nights should be sufficient.

Most of the cases of “larval Migrans” come from the beach and since the clinic I have been making an intensive study of conditions in the city where cases have been known to originate. I am doing this in connection with a final check on the treatments given at the clinic. It occurred to me that there was certainly some environments in the city which existed at the beach and my idea was to make a careful survey of both. Sunday I went down to Pablo early and worked most all day, though there are lots of things to be studied down there.

This may seem peculiar, but the parasite is so small that we have not been able to isolate it or identify it. It then behooves us to see under what conditions it develops and then try to strike upon the right thing and to produce the disease artificially. I shipped Mr. Bishopp about 50 sections of skin containing the parasites, and he is trying to locate them while in Washington. He is surrounded with specialists of all kinds and with the facilities there, he would stand a better chance to isolate them than I would at work here. At any event he will not be able to determine just what parasite is responsible for the disease, but can tell in a general way to what group it belongs. It will still be up to me to locate the proper one and with Dr. K.S. to produce the disease artificially. We may be able to do this before he finishes with that part, but if possible we would like to work it out both ways. Dr. K.S. believes that he and I will be the ones to locate and prove it, though he has worked at it for 14 years.

It is no small task, but I believe we will work it out OK. Dr. K.S. says it may take a couple of years but he intends to stay with it if it costs him everything. We have worked out an excellent treatment, but until we know what the thing is and where it develops we will not be able to do much in preventing infestations. We can’t hope to solve everything at once, for it is entirely new. There is absolutely nothing in literature regarding the cause of this malady. It may be quite a simple thing when we hit it and again it may be very complicated.

It is about 11 o’clock so guess I’d better say goodnight.

Kindest regards to all and very best for yourself,

Always
Walter

500 Professional Bldg
c/o Dr. K.S.

July 30, 1924

153 Powell Place
Jacksonville, Florida

July 30, 1924

Dear Ina,

I am very sorry indeed that you misunderstood me from my short note & I hope you will forgive me. I have been rushed so that I don’t hardly know straight up. The clinic opened when I arrived & we have had more than 250 patients, 150 of which were afflicted with what we call “larval migrans.”*

July 30, 1924

July 30, 1924

The thing is not what we expected to find, a result of something imported from the tropics but is entirely new – can’t find anything in literature on it and we are working for the origin as well as the treatment. Technically speaking it does not come under our Bureau but I want to work it out with Dr. Kirby-Smith if possible. Previous to this the treatments consisted of cutting out skin sections with the knife or injecting something under the skin to kill the parasite. We are now using a fumigant which penetrates the skin & apparently kills the parasite without having any ill effects. Some are treated for a year for extreme infestations, and I believe we have the thing that will get them in one or two treatments with no ill effects.

Dearie, you will probably think that I am crazy to go into details of my work in writing to you, but my whole energy is in it and we mean to work it out.

Will probably spend next week at homes where it originated in the city and the following week will be on the beach for a comparative study as to the source of infection etc.

Dr. Kirby-Smith has treated me royally since I’ve been here and he spends lots of time with me from his valuable practice. He is a specialist in skin diseases, and considered the best south of Washington.

Please don’t think hard of me Dearie for writing such a short note to you. I was at the clinic then & wanted to let you know that I arrived OK.

Trust I’ll hear from you soon and a long letter.

Sincerely,

Walter

Professional Bld of Dr. Kirby-Smith

* Yes, in 2011 you can Google “larva(l) migrans” and instantly learn what causes it. In 1924, though, it was a complete mystery. You are reading the personal letters of the fellow who figured it out, and for the next few weeks this blog will feature his efforts to explain that work to his girlfriend as he’s doing it. Go ahead and look it up, but be sure to come back to this story to see what it really took to get that answer.