TUBERCULOSIS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18591, 16 January 1926, Page 14

TUBERCULOSIS.

SYDNEY DOCTOR'S SERUM.

SUCCESS CLAIMED.

(noil OUB OWH COHBEBPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, January 5. A. discovery that might bring the acclamation of the -world upon its 30-year-old parent, Dr. E. Henty Smallpage, of Macquarie street, faydney, is that of a serum, for the treatment o tuberculosis. The announcement ot a partial success that has attended use of Dr. Smallpage s serum has avousett widespread interest, not only. members of the medical profession, but also among the public With that repugnance of the British Medical As- • sociation to countenance the publicity of any discovery characterising tne present announcement, lt is t 0 give a detailed account of Dr. Smallpage's experiments, but it is now known that the young doctor has been at work at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories at Melbourne for months and that over 70 tuberculosis patients he has treated have shown considerable , improvement since, using the doctor a serum, which is injected hypodermicallv i .The serum is at present being manufactured at the laboratories, an though, it is stated that Dr. Small- ■ page's Eprum is inexpensive, in conto M. Spahlinger's. the experiments' Drl Smallpage h«s been conducting are understood to have cost over For "seven years Dt. Smallpage has been experimenting with an idea based on what has been described as a simple process of nature. In diseases like typhoid, tuberculosis, and malaria, the lymphoid gland iissuo of the body becomes increased. Dr. Smallpage s object was to find out why it became increased. He obtained from Dr. Banting, of Toronto, the discoverer of insulin, the cure for diabetes,.his,method of making insulin: that was, of .gating the secretion of the cells forming the pancreas. He applied" Banting's technique, somewhat changed,,to obtain the secretion of the lymphoid tissue and he found that the secretion caused the destruction of the tubercular germ In the process of destruction- of the 'tubercular germ, the germ gave off its , poisons. Once having obtained . ■ tne poisons of the germ, it became a simple matter by standard serological methods to produce anti-toxic serum. Basis of the Idea.

The whole process rests, it is claimed, on the fact that the spleen produces a physiological secretion which kills the cerms. There is no new scientiiio principle, apart from this baotenologi*al property of the spleen, involved in the manufacture of the serum which is used. Dr. Smallpage is sand to have conceived the relation of the spleen to tuberculosis during research into malaria. Commenting on the discovery, a ' medical authority said, that Dr.. bmalipage's thesis-was in striking contrast to' that of M. Spahlinger. Ihe latter it was explained, stimulated the body with his serum, while the basis on which Dr: Sinallpage worked was to take some of the load off the patient. To illustrate this idea, it was pointed out that there were, say, two methods of helping a horse—that of taking ott some of the load, and that of using the whip. Spahlinger had adopted the Hatter course, and Dr. Smallpage the former By taking off some of the load, the body was better preserved and m a litter condition to fight the disease. Dr. Smallpage comes from a family that established itself near the River Murray nearly one lundred years ago. He had a very creditable academical, career, having gained the degrees of : M.8., Ch.M., F.RXJ.S. He was on; active' service during the Great War with the Army Medical Corps, and has travelled, in Egypt aiwl India, where he carried out innumerable experi- . ments on natives. !