PAIN TO CURE PAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

PAIN TO CURE PAIN.

There are twenty different kinds of headache. It is possible to find a single, underlying cause and a single cure? Dr. G. W. Pickering, a member of the Medical Research Society, and Dr. W. j Hess, have found a substance, "histamine ; acid phosphate," which, .on injection into I a vein, produces a headache in forty seconds. Particulars of their experiments are given in the "British Medical Journal." "I would place headaches," said the specialist, "next to the common cold in the huge loss they bring to the world; headaches cost this country millions of pounds a year in loss of efficiency. It is impossible ,to find the cure before the cause. Hence, it is a technical convenience to be able to produce headaches to order and in- the degree you wish. The research worker cannot'go round trusting to luck for headache subjects to examine. The method of producing a pain to find, ity curefhas been followed, effectively' in other- subjects, notably iii* cobra bite. It will probably be a long time before research produces any specific against headache, but it is of enormous importance that-the'first "steps'* are" hemg"'taken toward a diecoyeijr gf £h$ cause," '