MEDICAL TRIUMPHS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18954, 30 August 1923, Page 13

MEDICAL TRIUMPHS.

VICTORIES OVER DISEASE. SCIENTISTS CLAIM GREAT ADVANCES. A triumphant series of victories over diseases once believed-to be incurable have brought mankind's war on microbes into a new phase (writes the medical correspondent of the Sunday Express). The results of a great drive against cancer, consumption, paralysis, and epilepsy, waged silently. by scientists in laboratories and clinics in every civilised country, are now becoming known. Striking gains have been recently announced. Dr Georges Dreyer, professor <>* pathology at Oxford, made the djramatio statement in a lecture at St. Mary’s Hospital that he has' developed and brought into action a weapon which strips the tuberculosis microbe of its armour. This weapon has been used in the London Hospital with great success. ; The coming defeat of epilepsy, another . incurable” disease, is indicated by other scientists who have worked on the theory that it is caused by the functional failure of the parathyroid glands. It is now proved that these glands can be stimulated by the injection of an alkaline solution and by careful supervision of diet. Science, mindful of the danger of raising unfounded hope, has not made these announcements rashly. They are as carefully worded as a general’s official statements during a war. Their significance to humanity is immeasurable. . It is not long since consumption. "cures” were promised only by quacks, who knew that they could not fulfil their promises. To-day they are discussed by eminent men of science who know what they are talking about. . , Professor Georges Dreyer made his .announcement before an audience of his learned colleagues. He told them that he had discovered a way by which acid-fast microbes such as tuberculosis might be injected into the body of an individual, rendering him immune to the disease, or curing him if ho were tubercular. Tubercular and certain other microbes are protected by a fatty substance so that the body has not hitherto been able to digest them when injected dead, and has therefore not been able to produce the* anti-bodies 1, in the eeruiu to fight the living microbes Professor Dreyer treats the microbes with formalin and acetone, thus eliminating the fats and making it possible for the body tissues to absorb the germs and throw off the beneficent anti-bodies. Cases of lupus have been healed by this treatment in the London Hospital, and good results have been obtained in cases of tuberculosis of the joints. The treatment caused increase ot weight and decrease of sputum in tuberculosis of the lungs. This is. not the only battlefield on which consumption has suffered defeats. The serum discovered in 1021 by Dr Henri Spahlinger, a Swiss scientist, has proved so successful that the British Mmfatty of Health has asked for a supply ,of his serum and vaccine. Experiments with an Australian serum are being conducted in the borough of Poplar. . The insulin treatment of diabetes is one of the most recent and most important triumphs of science. Insulin is a drug derived from the panireas of cattle, and diabetes, like cailcer, is a disease, which is increasing in all civilised countries. There is a connection between these diseases, and the conditions under which civilised people live. Science is trying to discover this connection Insulin is now in use at bt. Jiaitnolomew’s, Guy’s. St. Thomas’ the London and the University College Hospitals, and at Sheffield and Edinburgh. The medical world, thanks to this drug, is satisfied that diabetes is no longer an incurable disease. Even paresis, a terrible scourge which paralyses and kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, is less terrible to-day than it was only a few weeks ago. Science has discovered a new curative agent called tryparsamid, of remarkable potency. A violent patient, who destroyed furniture and had to be kept in bed with hot packs, resumed his trade of carpenter within three months after the beginning of hia treatment with tryparsnmid. Another had the delusions of a madman. Ho was cured in four months. The war against paresis has been going on since 1919, but not until recently have scientists disclosed the extent of their victories. At the same time Professor Wagner JeurCr,g the eminent Austrian neurologist, has {ought with paralysis and hia results were announced recently. He has obtained complete cures at his clinics at Vienna ana Prague by a treatment which includes the injection of malaria germs and neo-salvarsan. After a few days the patient dives characteristic symptoms of malaria. This is treated with quinine. Other drugs are. injected, and the patalysis disappears. It is not a rapid treatment, but it is apparently effective.