TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 10 June 1926, Page 5

TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS

THE SMALLPAGE SERUM (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian. N.Z. Cable Association.) MELBOURNE, June 9. In the House of Representatives Sir Neville Howse announced that interim reports on Dr. Smallpage’s anti-tuber-culosis treatment has been received from five States. The reports generally were unfavourable and spoke of aggravated symptoms resulting from the use of the serum, and not one report expressed the opinion that patients had materially benefited from the treatment. MELBOURNE, This Day

In the House of Representatives, speaking on the Smallpage anti-t-über-culo»sis treatment Sir Neville Ilowse said Commonwealth laboratory experiments showed that disintegration and fragmentation of tubercle bacilli did not occur after treatment with splenic extracts.

Guinea pigs artificially infected with human tubercle bacilli were divided into two groups. One group was treated and the other group kept, as controls, in which the disease was allowed to develop normally. Almost all treated animals are dead and control animals still alive. Some rabbits infected with bovine tubercle bacilli were similarly divided into two groups. Some were treated by different methods approved by Dr. Smallpage and others were kept as controls. The treated animals died more rapidly Thar, the controls. The acting director of the laboratory in a summary said the results indicated that neither the serum nor the extract has been of rhe slightest avail in saving the lives of guinea pigs infected with human tubercle bacilli. On the other hand, they indicated that death liad been hastened by the use of these agents.