I, the undersigned, Professor
Dr. Helmuth Weese, resident of Wuppertal-Elberfeld, have first been duly warned
that I shall be subject to punishment if I give a false affidavit. I declare
under oath that my statement is true and was made to be introduced as evidence
before the Military Tribunal I in the Palace of Justice of Nuernberg,
Germany.
When the question is put to me
whether it is to be assumed that a doctor, after studying the monograph by G.
Madaus and Fr. E. Koch: "Studies of Animal Experiments," pertaining
to the question of sterilization by medication (by means of caladium seguinum
(dieffenbachia seguina), Journal for the Entire Experimental Medicine, vol.
109, p. 68, 1941, could become convinced that human beings can be sterilized
with caladium seguinum, I have the following to say about it:
It is pointed out in the
investigation referred to above that the authors succeeded in sterilizing rats
by feeding them with extract of caladium seguinum. This is proved by mating
experiments as well as by anatomical investigations. In order to effect this
sterilization of both female and male rats, daily doses of 1/2 cc. for each rat
weighing from 150-180 grams had to be administered 30-50 times and 40-90 times
daily, respectively, without being certain of successful results. To apply this
to a man weighing 70 kilograms, it would mean administering 200 grams of
extract daily.
The investigations show abundantly
that a considerable number of animals treated perished from the poisonous
effects of the caladium extract. The extract therefore has no specific effect
on the reproductive system. It is still completely unknown whether these
harmful secondary effects are due to an element in the extract or some kind of
accompanying ingredients.
Such types of unspecific injuries of
the reproductive system are known to be caused in man in a similar manner also
by other agents, for example, by the excessive misuse of nicotine, morphine,
and the like, in which case, however, they too appear only along with most
severe impairment of other functions.
First of all every doctor faces the
question as to whether these experiments on rats are at all applicable to men.
Madaus and Koch reject this from the start, because for them it is merely a
question of determining whether the popular medical practice of making men
impotent by administering sizable quantities of caladium extract can be
corroborated by animal experiments.
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