SUGAR AND TUBERCULOSIS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1153, 24 December 1918, Page 2

SUGAR AND TUBERCULOSIS.

ITALIAN SCIENTIST'S THEORY DF A CURE. Professor Le Monaco, who is Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry connected with the Academy of the Lineei, at- Rome, lately announced in an official communication that he had been able to make a great advance in the cure of tuberculosis by a new method which he claims is much simpler than all the serum methods experimented with during recent years. Instead of attacking the bacillus itself, whose conditions of life, reproduction, and resistance to outside influences are even now only imperfectly understood, Professor Monaco proposes to modify the surroundings in which the microbe lives, and thus to make its existence possible. His paper is entitled "Action of Sugars on'the Bronchial Secretion," and is the result of very careful researches made since 1907. This Italian scientist tells us how he observed the action of sugar on all the secretions of the human organism." At first he made detailed observations on secretion of milk, and proved that saccharine solution applied by hypodermic injection upon goats had tlie efket of materially increasing this secretion, even where the solution is used in a very small amount, but on the other hand, large amounts act to lesson the secretion. All these effects take place, according to the Scientific American, however, without modifying the cemposition of the milk. These' curious results were also confirmed upon women. In 1914 Professor Monaco was able to establish with certainty that the amounts of various secretions such as saliva, bile, gastric juice and pancreatic juice, were modified to a very great degree upon introducing sugar into the organism. He then sought to explain the way in' which this action takes place, and found that it consists in a marked expansion and contraction of the blood vessels of the organs in question, and this takes place according to the amount of sugar substance employed. This he confirmed by observing the method of action of the sugar solution in surface or deep hemorrhages, and found a marked action in stopping the flow of blood, as well as a considerable effect on the gland system. From these observations he was led to conclude that injections of sugar would have a marked action in modifying the bronchial secretions of tuberculosis patients. With this end in view, he carried on a series of practical tests, and these far exceeded his expectations. His tests were made especially upon soldiers brought from the front and affected with tuberculosis, and here he found a rapid improvement. Then he succeeded in making cures which were recognised as final by skilled persons. Under this treatment it is found that the cough, night sweats, and fever ceased entirely.