TUBERCULOSIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20892, 5 December 1929, Page 10

TUBERCULOSIS.

A CLERGYMAN’S CLAIM. MANY CURES EFFECTED. COMPOUND WITH TONIC PROPERTIES. (Special to Dailt Turns.) AUCKLAND, December 4. 'Claiming to have discovered a medicine which has cured scores of cases of tuberculosis, an Auckland clergyman has obtained the permission of Archbishop Averill to distribute the compound to sufferers anywhere at practically no cost. The Rev. Edward Ward, vicar of the Church of Ascension, at Point Chevalier, makes this astonishing claim. “ The medicine has effected so many cures during the past three years that there can be no question as to its efficaciousness. In a majority of cases,” said Mr Ward, “ so marked has been its success that I have no hesitation in making this announcement. If I were not thoroughly convinced 1 should maintain silence, for it would be very wrong to raise the hopes of sufferers wantonly only to dash them to the ground. “My medicine has been used with great, success, and is 'still being used extensively by a medical practitioner who is a member of the British Medical Association. This doctor practises among the Maoris, many of whom suffer from consumption of the lungs.” Mr Ward he did not propose to make profits either for himself c-r for the Church from the distribution of the medicine. However, he did not intend to disclose the recipe. For one thing, the recipe would he useless to a lay person, unskilled in dispensing. Mr Ward is a qualified pharmaceutist and makes up the medicine himself. It is a compound of certain mineral salts used extensively by one school of the medical profession on the Continent of Europe, plus a herb that grows freely in New Zealand and while having no specific action on the tubercle bacillus, it has remarkable tonic properties. All the ingredients are easy to procure. The medicine is made up in the form of a powder, and is prepared by pouring water upon it. It is harmless, according to Mr Ward, who has several times swallowed outsize doses without deleterious results. Mr Ward offers this medicine to , all sufferers. “I would make it available free of charge If I could, but I find that I shall have to charge ninepence a week to each recipient, in order to meet out-of-pocket expenses,” said Mr Ward. “If 1 were to give the prescription away I fear it would be commercialised, anti I wish to avoid that.” Innumerable letters expressing gratitude have been received by Mr Ward from people who have been cured. In many cases .the cures have been effected in less than six months, Mr Ward says the medicine is generally efficacious in eases of consumption of the lungs when there is sufficient sound lung in existence to maintain life. Some 600 persons die annually in New Zealand from consumption of the lungs, and Mr Ward feels confident that hia discovery will have the effect of saving at least 500 of that number. A few advanced cases have failed to respond to treatment so far as to be cured, but these failures have been concerned with .hopeless cases, fn each instance the patient had a happier death than would, in the opinion of a doctor, have been possible.