WHERE ILL-HEALTH BEGINS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 3 December 1927, Page 8

WHERE ILL-HEALTH BEGINS

METCHNIKOFF VINDICATED The famous Russian physiologist and savant, Elie Metehnikotf, was for many years director of-the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He received in 190 S the Nobel Prize for medical research. His theory of disease —that it originated in the colon, or large intestine in the majority of cases, and that autoxima (intestinal toxaemia) or self-poi-soning through intestinal obstruction, was responsible for riiost of the ills to which mortal flesh is heir, even senility—had, at the time, a tremendous vogue.

Then it was proved the remedy "he advocated (the once-fashionable 'sour milk' treatment) was for all-practical purposes ineffectual, doing no harm certainly but no particular good either. Immediately, MetchnikofTs 'cure' underwent a popular eclipse, and the inevitable re-action swept the colonic theory of disease 'away, with it. So, it remained for other investigators to follow in his footsteps and prove that his theories were soundly based even though the. conclusions he drew from them might be chimerical. Later experimental work, that persistent scientific examination into the nature of life and disease, unemotional, and therefore uninteresting to the popular mind, which is always proceeding, pointed irresistibly to the colon* again. In June, 1914, a definite conclusion was reached and several -new conceptions formulated* They were to be emphasised recently in a speech which was cabled all oyer the civilised world. The speaker was' Sir Arbuthhot Lane, who is,, acknowledged to be the greatest living master (f surgery. Then came the madness of war. A stop was put to all research not intimately connected with the business of warfare and the announcement that was of so vital an importance to the whole of mankind postponed for six long years. Actually, the discovery of eoloseptie, though dating from before the war, was publicly announced in 1921. Primarily originated as a safe and harmless prophylactic of the colon, it has been declared to be a positive cure for autoxhna. .Once more the colon occupies its former pedestal as the Achilles' heel of the human body. But, this time doer tors believe, a scientific remedy for colon obstruction without unpleasant complications has been found. Sir Arbuthnot Lane, speaking at a luncheon party tendered to him by a group of the most prominent physicians and surgeons in New York, said: "Most of the diseases with which civilisation is afflicted arise froiri intestinal toxaemia, and the chief purpose of the new association to be formed in London, called the New Health Society, will be to educate the people in the methods of preventing chronic intestinal stasis, which means menacing civilisation." Intestinal stasis is, of course, constipation. Thus was Metchnikoff, who died in 1910, vindicated. .