CLAIMS DISCREDITED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18887, 9 December 1924, Page 8

CLAIMS DISCREDITED.

THE SPAHLINGER SERUM.

DR. BLACKMORE'S INQUIRIES

NOTHING NEW DISCOVERED.

INDEPENDENT TESTS REFUSED.

The Spahlinger method' of treating tuberculosis was investigated by Dr.-J Blackmore, superintendent of the Cash", mere Hills Sanatorium, during his visit.to the Continent. Dr. Blackmore accompanied by Mrs. Blackmore and their two daughters left last December and rej turned by the Niagara yesterday. The Spahlinger institution is 'in . Switzerland, " the • Mecca of tuberculoid people in Europe." " I saw Dr. Sp a h. linger's methods," said Dr. Blackmore, " and am rather doubtful whether he Las found anything better than we have already got. I found that he was making a- serum horses' blood, somewhat similar to a good many scrums previouslj' made, arid also making a vaccine that resembles in some respects tuberj culin, and as far as I was able to judge, j has very much the.sa actiou as tuber- | culin. -

" I saw some of his patients, including a number of New Zealanders, and found that the progress they were making was very slow. One of these men had been under treatment for two years. Another who had died just before my-visit had also had two years' treatment., These facts disprove the original claims that the treatment would wipe out the disease ;in a few months. .

"I believe that Spahlinger, himself, 'is an honest man and as far as .1° was -able to find out, the great effort made 'to j commercialise his method is due to the i influence of people who have lent him

money and are anxious to get' it lack again. Until I obtained this information I could not understand the commercial attitude. Unfortunately for- those financially concerned. Spahlihger ' refuses really independent tests of - his statement and although ho has been urged to take in one or two bacteriolo-

gists, particularly from New.. Zealand, he will not agree jto this being done. The result is that every country is holding back. They will not put money into the institution because the method has not

been proved and Spahlinger is not taking the right steps to .prove it.. He has built up a laboratory and there is no doubt that he has done a tremendous amount of work in 'it* He is devoting his whole time and energy to the place and elaborating the 6ystein."

j The study of the treatment of \ tuberI culosis occupied a great deal of Dr. Blackmore's attention. He saw the work being done in that department of medicine in England, Ireland and Scotland, and .attended a large conference on tuberculosis in London. -'- He found ' nothing ahead of what New Zealand' possesses. He returned via Canada and took the opportunity of visiting the Truheau Sanatorium in the United States. This institution is usually regarded as the best in the country, but he found nothing we have not got in New Zealand for the treatment of consumption. A rather lamentable state'of affairs-was ' revealed by his visit to Montreal. There a large sanatorium urgently needed by patients had been closed owing to a dispute between the Government and municipalities apparently over the question of funds,

In every , country Dr, Blackmora visited, the rate of the 'disease was considerably higher than it is in New Zealand. At the same tirco the rate wag being reduced in nearly all countries. Certainly in every country where an effort was being made to . check it the death rate had fallen.