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. NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume I · Page 874
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  TRANSLATION OF POKORNY
DOCUMENT 19
POKORNY DEFENSE
EXHIBIT 27
 
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. HELMUTH WEESE,
19 MARCH 1947, CONCERNING USE
OF CALADIUM SEGUINUM FOR
STERILIZATION
 

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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