4. It must have a deep and long-lasting effect on bleeding and clotting
time.
5. After the effect wears off it must be possible to administer another
dose without any danger.
Hemostats now on sale commercially meet these demands only partially. No
unobjectionable hemostat is known so far which is in tablet form,
durable, unimpaired by cold temperatures and therefore easily
transportable. But it would be worthwhile to produce such a preparation
whose application would have the following important advantages:
1. It could be given prophylactically to the combat troops before an
attack and to air crews before action. Too great a loss of blood could
be avoided that way when tending to wounds is delayed; similarly it
would prevent the wounded from becoming incapacitated by delaying the
loss of blood.
2. Before operations in which greater areal bleeding is to be expected,
it could be used to keep the operational region clear of interfering
bleeding.
3. Persons having a long blood clotting time could benefit inestimably
from such a remedy in cases of teeth extractions, etc.
4. In severe cases of lung or stomach hemorrhage which cannot be treated
surgically at once, such a remedy could be life saving.
We believe we have such a remedy in “Polygal 10,” a preparation composed
and tested in our institute, which does fulfill the above requirements.
“Polygal 10” is a drug composed on a “pectin” base; its new method,
differentiating it from other hemostats on a pectin base is to be found
in the activation of pectin before composing it into the hemostat.
Before we tried the clinical use of the drug and had it probed, it was
tested on _human beings_ by thorough experiments as to its influence on
the period of clotting and bleeding. The period of clotting was
occasionally established in short intervals by 10 parallel definitions
of free flowing venous blood according to the method of _Buercker_. The
period of bleeding was measured by a stop watch after a wound at the ear
had been inflicted by a “Frankeschen Schnepper.”
On the enclosed graphic chart (not reproduced) the curves of two
experimental subjects are displayed (experimental subjects Nos. 200 and
207). The depth of decline and the duration of effect correspond to the
average. It is to be mentioned with reference to the curves that
_various persons_ were always used for the _experiments_ in order to
avoid a possible accumulation of effect by the drug.
* * * * *
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-656
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 247
MEMORANDUM BY SS OBERSTURMBANNFUEHRER WOLFF, 8 MAY 1944; LETTERS FROM
DR. KAHR TO RASCHER, 10 AND 16 DECEMBER 1943
[Handwritten] The Preparation of Polygal
Waischenfeld/Oberfranken 8 May 1944
No. 135 Telephone No. 2
Journal No. Wo/He.
The Reich Leader SS
Personal Staff
Office Ahnenerbe