ELECTRICITT AS A CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELECTRICITT AS A CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

At th,e national meeting of the American Medical Association, which was In session a few weeks ago, in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Francisque Grotte, an eminent chemist of Paris, appeared with an announcement that he wished to read a paper on the cure of tuberculosis.. Dr. Cro.tte was given the floor and proceeded to make a thorough explanation of his method, through his interpreter, as the doctor himself did not speak a word of English. At the beginning1 his audience was interested; before he was thoroughly started the 500 physicians who were listening were absorbed, and when he finished they were so impressed that not a sound could be heard, in the great room. Dr. Crotte has followed up the work of Pasteur on antiseptics. They both had the same persistency, never relinquishing- a theory until they knew they were wrong, and when Dr. Crotte proved in private that as a result of his ex- J periments he could cure tuberculosis, he brought his communication before the Academy of Sciences of Paris, giving proof of his work and calling 1000 poor j people to be treated free, with the re- j suit that he has cured over 3000 cases permanently In the three clinics established. In seeking for a means of bringing medical substances in closer contact with the diseased parts of the body, Dr. Crotte began to employ static currents or currents of natural electricity, to which some of the experimenters of the latter part of the eighteenth cen- | tury attributed the property of trans- : fusing substances into tissues. Although there was some doubt as to such currents possessing this property, Dr. Crotte believes that his experiments leave no further room for doubt. Upon this is based the fundamental point of his method; first, upon static' electricity sufficiently accumulated to kill microbes without danger to the patient; second, upon the utilisation of static currents to convey the antiseptic to the seat of the disease and thus neutralise the effects of the toxine; third, upon the use of metals which are transfused at the same time, and which, combining favourably with the medicines, become valuable aids to the cure—some as reconstituents, others as antiseptics. The treatment consists in inhalation of formaldehyde and other antiseptics, which are forced through the tissues in the seat of the disease and successfully kill the microbe of Koch, by a high tension static machine especially designed and invented by Dr. Crotte for the purpose. To prove that destruction of bacilli takes place, one need only examine the sputum before and after treatment. When examined before, living bacilli were seen, when after, they w?re found dead in the sputum.

The treatment is wholly specific, and Dr. Crotte has received the indorsement of Paris, where he has practised his system for five years successfully. He says that dynamic electricity is dangerous, its currents at high tension imperiling- the lives of patients. This is why he uses static, or natural, electricity. He maintains that by the combination of the destructive power of static electricity with the power of its currents to convey through the whole human body medicinal substances, he has obtained results which permit him to claim that tuberculosis as well as other chronic diseases can be cured.

The doctor now proposes to take up this work in the United States, where he engages to cure 100 per cent of patients in the first stage of the disease, 75 per cent, of those in the second stage, and 30 per cent, of the cases which are called as hopeless, in the third stage. All he asks is for the patient to have enough pulmonary substance to live and breathe. The period of treatment for children in the first stage is from 15 to 30 days, of adults in the same stage, from 30 to 90 days. The period in the second stage is from 60 to 90 days, and for children and adults in the last stage a much longer period is required.

After the reading and discussion of Dr.

Crotte's paper, the following resolutions were read and adopted by the Association:—

Whereas, from carefully prepared statistics, it ig found that of the deaths from all causes between the ages of 15 and 60 years, one third result from tuberculosis, and that one in every 50 persons has this disease; and

Whereas, competent authorities claim that under proper treatment at least one •fifth to one quarter of those affected by tuberculosis may be cured, and

Whereas, the European Governments are actively engaged in endeavours to stamp out this- disease, while in the United States nothing has, as yet, been done by us as a nation in this important work; therefore, be it

Resolved, that the President appoint a committee of five, with power to add to their number, who shall prepare a report on the nature of tuberculosis, its communicability and prevention; the more effectual means of controlling the spread of infection and of educating the people in personal hygiene, so as to lessen the chances of their becoming tuberculous and to increase the prospects of their recovery, the advisability of establishing national and State sanatoria and such other .natters as may be pertinent to the subject.

Resolved, that this committee shall present this report to the Congeress of the United States and to the Legislatures of the various states of the Union and urge upon them that appropriate measures be speedily taken.—"Chicago Inter-Ocean."