World-wide Stephen D. Mumford and his partner, a like-minded contraceptive researcher named Elton Kessel are the sole distributors of quinacrine. In a remarkably quiet crusade they have managed to pay for its manufacture in Switzerland, arrange for its free distribution in about 20 countries and mobilize a far flung network of doctors, nurses and midwives to administrators. Operating in mostly impovrished countries with weak regualtion of health-care practices, the two Americans have bypassed the stringent controls that typically govern the testing and use of experimental drugs. In the past decade, quinacrine pellets supplied by Mr. Mumford have been responsible for the irreversible chemical sterilization of more than 100,000 Thrid World women.