CAN CANCER BE CURED?

Otago Witness, Issue 1936, 2 April 1891, Page 35

CAN CANCER BE CURED?

A VISIT TO COUNT MATTEI: HIS CHALLENGE TO THE FACULTY.

With Lettees prom Phofbssok Huxley, Peofessob Tyndall, Sib Mobell

Mackenzie, Pbofessob Ray LanKESTEB, AND OtHBBS.

(The Review of Eeviews for January.)

WHAT DOES IT ALL COME TO 1

And now the question arises, What does it all come to ? Is this amiable enthusiast in the Apennines the benefactor of the world ? or is he but another charlatan bent upon filling his pockets by gulling the public 1 Conscious charlatan Count Mattei does not seem to be. He believes in bis remedies as Mr Gladstone believes in Home Rule, or Cardinal Manning believes in the Catholic Church. Whether he is justified or not in his belief, who can say? It is a question of evidence, of experiment, of careful scientific observation. No one, of course, pretends to believe in a universal specific. It is not enough to show that his remedies fail and often fail. Tried by that test every system in the world stands condemned. Men and women have a perverse habit of dying in spite of all the systems invented to keep them alive. The question is not whether they do not often fail, for that must be taken for granted in any case, but whether or not they often succeed where other remedies have been useless. Of course it is not sufficient to prove that this happens in isolated cases. Cures, and remarkable cures, have been wrought by bread and butter pills and by potions of coloured water. The imagination plays a great part in medicine. But imagination will not cure a cat, nor will imagination cure a cancer. Both of these achievements are claimed by the Matteists. They cannot possibly be accused of confining their experiments to any selected few. The Chinese at Hankow, the Arabs of Northern Africa, the Red Indians of North America, the lepers of India, together with the courtiers of St Petersburg, the diplomatists of Germany, and -the royalties of Austria, make up a sufficiently extended range of subjects for the experiment to be fairly exhaustive. At the same, time, the results of the experiment have not been noted with scientific accuracy to afford us anything approaching to certainty as to the curative value of the new remedies.

Of course to any person unaccustomed to the infinitesimal doses of the homoeopath, there seems something obviously incredible in the assertion that, when a globule the size of a pin's head is dissolved in a tumbler of water, a teaspooonf ul of the solution can produce "the slightest effect upon an obstinate disease. But even this is not the utmost, limit of the tax of the system upon our oredulity. For when the patient is very far gone it is prescribed as necessary to give him teaspoonfuls of a second or even of a third dilution. What this means is as follows. You take a globule the size of a pinhead, and dissolve it in a tumbler of water. From that solution you take one teaspoonf ul, throw the rest away, and mix that teaspoonful with a second tumblerful of water. That is the second dilution. If the case is very desperate you take a teaspoonful from that mixture and add it to a third tumbler, and serve up teaspoonfuls of the resultant third dilution every five minutes. To the natural man, accustomed to the massive doses of allopathy, the suggestion that such an attenuated, thrice-diluted solution of a pin's head of a globule, of which you could swallow a thousand without experiencing the least ill effects, seems too monstrous. But a friend of mine, who does not believe in Mattei, told me that when he was watching at what he feared would be the death-bed of one of his children who was lying sick of a fever, he saw the temperature on the thermometer fall with the most remarkable regularity after each teaspoonful of the second dilution was administered.

The cases in which cures can be effected instantaneously are, however, comparatively few. The worst of many of the Mattei treatments is that they are so slow, and need to be persisted in so long that the patient loses patience and gives up just when he ought to have persevered. There is one excellent thing about these medicines, and that is, they are very cheap. There are about 301 globules in each shilling phial, each of them guaranteed as good for at least one whole tumblerful of medicine. There is nothing cheaper than this in the whole pharmacopoeia. DO THE MATTE! REMEDIES OUBE, OR DO

THEY NOT 1

is a question to be decided, first by evidence as to what has been done, and, secondly, by experiment as to what can be done. Experiment in some cases is easy. There is, for instance, the efficacy of "blue electricity" as a styptic. This is so potent that Mr Booth-Tucker is convinced that in field hospitals and war time it will save innumerable lives which now perish. That can be tested by anyone who will take the trouble to cut bis finger and then apply the remedy. The efficacy of the granules, good against seasickness, can also be tested very simply. They are not universally efficacious. In some cases they fail, but in the majority, so far as I can judge, they succeed. Personally I can only testify to the almost magical effect of the medicine in banishing an attack of sickness, and their efficacy in allaying painful swelling from mosquito bites. These are trifle 3, but the success of the remedies in these matters, although not affording the slightest argument as to their efficacy in cases of cancer and leprosy, carry us at least past the position taken up by those who deny that there is anything in the electricities but pure water, oi in the granules but sugar. The allegations as to the cure of cancer are more serious anA demand a more serious treatment.

I have before me reports of four cancer case* iv which competent medical men certify that the patients have been cured by the U3e of the Mattei remedies. The first two are taken from the practice of a doctor in Southampton.

On inquiring from the doctor whether these statements were authentic and wo ild bear cross-examination before a committee,

he said they were perfectly authentic, but that' the patients, while willing to attest their cure, would object to be submitted to a public or quasi-public examination. I will, therefore, not lay any further stress upon these cases.

TWO ALLEGED CUBES.

The other two, fortunately, have no such hesitancy in coming forward to say what the Mattei medicines have done for them. Both the cases have been submitted to a company of medical gentlemen which met at Limmer's Hotel on Sunday, December 1, before whom the patients appeared and submitted to the examination of any of those present. The particulars of these cases are as follows : —

Mrs Ferguson, a widow of 38 years of age, living on the Clyde, suffered from cancer in the breast, which was operated upon at Edinburgh Infirmary by Professor A on October 8, 1886. After returning home as cured, cancer broke out again, and she was subjected to a seoond operation on November 10, 1887. The wound was a long time healing, but the cancer again appeared, and this time she underwent a deeper operation on January 21, 1889. When the cancer reappeared it was thought useless to subject the patient for the fourth time to the knife, and she was left to die. The disease was .30 far advanced that, when she was brought under the attention of Dr Kennedy in September 1889, he expressed an opinion that it was hopeless to try and save her life as she bad not more than two or three months to live. He could, however, give her some medicines to alleviate pain during the short time she had to live. Mrs Ferguson, instead of dying, used the Mattei medicines and recovered. Dr G , who examined her before and sent her up to Edinburgh Infirmary, has now certified that she has completely recovered and is now in good health. The woman has been pioduced before Professor A and the other operating doctors. She was produced at Limmer's Hotel and answered all questions that were put to her, and showed no trace of the disease beyond the scars of the previous operations. Extract from the Register of Operation conduoted by Professor A in the Edinburgh Infirmary : — Mrs B. F.... Ocb. 8, 1886 ...Excision of right mamma - Nov. 30, 1887...Eeonrrent aoirrhus Jan. 21, 1890

Certificate from surgeon as to her health :—

Ootober 22.— 1 hereby certify that in July last I saw and examined Mra E. F. She informed me that she had been operated on for cancer of the breast and for recurrence. On examination I found a perfeot healthy cioatrix, and the glands of the axilla normal. I certified her as in good and sonnd health.— G. R. A., 8.A., M.D.

The second case is that of Mrs Kilner, of Huddersfield. Some years back a small growth of a pecnliar type showed itself behind the nail of the third finger, possibly occasioned by the pressure of a thimble. The local doctor treated it for some considerable time with various lotions, but still it persisted. At length he recommended her to go up to London and consult Mr B , an eminent surgeon attached to one of our largest hospitals. . He at once pronounced it a sarcoma, which is a peculiarly malignant affection. He removed it and scraped the bone, and the lady returned to her home. Not long after it reappeared, and she returned and submitted to another similar operation. In a few weeks more it recurred again, and now the first joint of the finger was removed. Still it recurred again after about tjhe same lapse of time ; and on this occasion, when the surgeon advised the removal of the finger, the patient demurred. He counselled her and her husband to take the opinion of Sir James Paget in the matter. On doing so Sir James confirmed the advice already given, and urged that the operation should be performed without delay, otherwise the consequences would be most serious. And now the finger was removed ; and once again the lady returned home, and hoped that deliverance had come. Uut in vainl In about five weeks arecurrence was unmistakeable, and progressing with great rapidity. All the tissues of her hand and arm on both sides swelled up, became discoloured, the lymphatic glands at the bend of the elbow enlarged, and the whole arm felt hot and heavy; and with a heavy heart she came back again to London, and waited upon the surgeon who had operated hitherto, and who now proposed, without delay, to remove her arm above the elbow. She rebelled against this, and he assured her that it was the only chance of saving her life. She could not see how this could be, but judging from the fatal regularity of the preceding recurrences, concluded that the next recurrence must be in all probability a fatal one, and so she resolved to make application for help in another quarter. It was at the time when Lady Paget's first article had appeared and been noticed in the Review of Reviews, and having read it she resolved at once to consult Dr Kennedy. When she did so, and learned that there was hope for her from the remedies of Count Mattei, she placed herself at once under treatment in Dr Kennedy's Medical Home. She so speedily recovered that in five weeks she was able to return home. She has been keeping well during these five months that have passed, is now in perfect health, and with the exception of the lost finger, she has no trace of the disease. All these facts have been confirmed by the written testimony of her medical attendants, and the growth was subjected to microscopic examination by Mr B , and pronounced to be " a round-celled sarcoma." WAS IT REAL CANCEB, AND IS IT CURED? In both of these cases- the Mattei medicines seemed to have performed a complete cure under conditions which Count Mattei regards as fatal. He never professes to cure anyone who has undergone an operation, but in both these cases the patients had been operated on three times. Tried by the tests of Professor Bay Lankester there seems to be nothing wanting in these cases.

No doubt the doctors who operated on Mrs Ferguson and Mrs Kilner may have been mistaken in believing that they were suffering from cancer, but, if so, there is no reason to rely upon the judgment of any doctor in any case of cancer. If the doctor is sufficiently convinced of the cancerous nature of the malady as to subject the patient to a dangerous operation, nofc once, but twice, and even thrice, the public will

acccept as sufficient evidence that, according to the best available scientific diagnosis, the malady waß cancer. If it were not cancer, why the operation?

It may also be objected that it is too early to declare that the cancer in either of these cases has been completely cured, or that there will not be a relapse. No doubt relapses do occur, not only in the Mattei treatment, but in others. In both the cases I have mentioned the profession regarded death as certain in a few months, but, thanks to the use of the Mattei remedies, both of the patients are in good health at the present time. That surely is sufficient to justify the institution of a carefully-con-ducted scientific experiment as to the value of these medicines.

LEPROSY AND ECZEMA.

Cancer is not the only incurable disease that is said to have been cured by Mattei's remedies in the last 12 months. Leprosy, one of the scourges of the human race, it is asserted, yielded to the magic influence of these medicines. Upon this, however, I shall not dwell, merely quoting the statement made by the Jesuit father at Mangalore. He asserts that he has witnessed the most extraordinary results follow the use of the Mattei medicines on behalf of leprosy. The moment we leave incurable disease we have an immense array of evidence as to the extraordinary cares wrought on disease which has proved intractable to all ordinary treatment. Take, for instance, eczema. Alderman W. D. Stephens, of Newcastle, is one of the best-known men of the north country ; he is one of the heartiest supporters of MrMorley in Newcastle, a'veteran temperance man, who has hadihis hand in every good work for many years on Tyneside. He suffered from such persistent eczema that his life almost became a burden to him. None of his doctors could do him any good ; he took the Mattei medicines, and (as he says in a letter he wrote to me on the subjeot) in a fortnight 95 per cent, of his disease disappeared — it was almost like magic — and by persisting in the treatment he has completely recovered. A Catholic priest in the Bast End of London suffered so much from the same disease that he was 'seriouslyj contemplating giving up his sacerdotal calling when he read in the Review of Reviews of Count Mattei. He had tried so many medicines and physicians that it was with the scepticism of despair he refused to try any more. But reading in a subsequent number of some other cases he thought, " I will try these also before abandoning my profession." To his amazement the simple remedies banished his disease, and he is now in full work and enjoying excellent health.

A JUDGE AS WITNESS.

While I was correcting the proofs of this article another remarkable instance was brought before my attention, in which the Mattei remedies were alleged to have effected a complete cure of cancer. A gentleman holding a judicial position in her Majesty's courts was attacked last year with a malady which possessed all the outward appearance of oancer. A swelling appeared innder his left breast which gradually hardened, with shooting pains, while discolouration spread over the whole swelled "surface. There was no apparent cause for the appearance of the cancer in that region, fie placed himself under the treatment of a distinguished physician, who refused to say definitely whether it was cancer or not, •evaded the question when asked point-blank, but looked very grave, and ordered an outward application, which produced not the slightest effect on the swelling, which continued to increase. As there was no abatement of the pains, the judge consulted another physician of the first rank. " Tell me," said he, "is it cancer ? " The doctor, as is usual with the Faculty, evaded the question, and said, " Oh, well, there will be no need to resort to the knife just yet awhile." His manner and tone, however, -when making this remark, convinced his patient that it was only a matter of time when the operation would take place. As he had read Lady Paget's article in the National Review, and subsequently seenDr Kennedy's paper, he wrote to the latter describing his symptoms, and asked for the necessary remedies it the diagnosis seemed to point to cancer. Dr Kennedy had no doubt whatever, from the minute description forwarded to him, that it was a case of cancer, and prescribed the use of the necessary remedies. There was a medicated ointment to be applied externally, a dilution of medicines to be taken in sips every half- hour, and a certain number of little granules to be taken dry. In less than two months the pain vanished, the swelling abated, and the discolouration disappeared. The judge, when I saw him, was perfectly well — in better health, although he was at the age of 73, than he had been for a long time. He was fully convinced that he had had cancer, that the cancer had been cured, and that it could have been cured by no other agency than by the Mattei remedies, at whose eStaacy he marvelled.

It may be, of course, that he was mistaken ; but as it was to him a question of life and death, and as it is his professional duty to weigh evidence and to pronounce judgment, his emphatic belief as to the good work wrought in him by the Mattei remedies immensely strengthens the cumulative effect of the evidence which I have already collected on the subject of Matteism.

When Lady Paget was in London last month I called upon her at 53 Grosvenor street, and had from her the strongest possible confirmation of the statements in her article. Lady Paget is not a lady of one idea ; she is somewhat eclectic in medicine, and has long taken deep interest in various methods of treatment, using impartially homoeopathy, water cure, a herbal system of her own, and Count Mattei's remedies. She said no one could entertain any doubt whatever as to the extraordinary cures wrought by the Mattei remedies when they were correctly applied and persistently taken. She had cured one of her own children nearly 20 years ago by their use, and had since then gone on using them with extraordinary results. She confirmed very -strongly the impression I had received from the Count. No one, she remarked, could •possibly doubt his dona fide belief in the virtues of his own discovery. He was an -enthusiast. He told her that he would have no hesitation in naming the herbs used by .him in the preparation of his medioinea, but 3&e finishing town, tbo wore* by which be

gave them an efficacy far superior to any ordinary medicine, was not one which he would communicate to the world. Lady Paget remarked that she thought verbena or balm was the basis of the medicinefebrifugo, and that " shepherd's purse " was the herb which gave the " blue electricity " its extraordinary influence in preventing hemorrhage. Lady Paget stated that there could be no doubt whatever of this, as it could be tested by anyone, and had never failed. Lady Paget spoke in the highest terms of the medicines when taken as a corrective of troubles arising from indigestion, and stated that she believed that she owed her own robust health in no small degree to the practice of taking a sip of " scrof " in dilution after every meal.

NOW FOR THE SCIENTIFIC TEST 1

So I might go on indefinitely. I have, however, said enough to justify the attention I have paid to the Italian nobleman and his mysterious medicines. I claim that these facts, which seem to be indisputable, demand from the medical profession more respectful treatment than his discovery has hitherto received. It will not do for men to come from the uttermost parts of the earth to investigate the secret remedy of Dr Koch, a remedy which so far seems to have caused more deaths than cures, to rule the Mattei remedies out of court because they are secret. They may be secret, but at least they are not deadly. It is discreditable to the intelligence of the profession, and the credit of men who have the life and death of their patients in their hands, to refuse to subject these claims, so influentially supported, on evidence so indisputable, to verification.

[Mr Stead brought the facts whish he had collected before a nnmber of eminent medical men, and received replies pointing out the difficulties in the way of having a thorough and exhaustive examination into the alleged cure 3 made. After publishing the replies he says — ]

Sir Morell Mackenzie's letter was, perhaps, the most practical of all.

SIE MOBELL MACKENZIE'S PEOPOSAL.

Sir Morell wrote me very kindly and frankly. He pointed out the obstacles which rendered it very difficult to arrive at any conclusion upon cases which were already cured. He went on to say pretty much as Professor Huxley and Dr Potter had said, that the only test that was worth anything was the actual test of an experiment conducted under scientific conditions upon patients unmistakeably suffering from cancer. Let a small hospital, he said, be opened in which some four or five patients suffering from cancer should be received, and handed over after careful examination by a competent professional man to the physician and nurses who would treat them on the Mattei system There would be no interference with the Matteists during the period of treatment, and the hospital would be at all times open to the inspection of the experimental committee charged with the superintendence of investigation. The committee would from time to time examine the patients, making careful note of their progress towards death or recovery, and they would draw up a careful and exhaustive report upon each case, whether it has killed or cured.

Sir Morell Mackenzie concluded by clinching his proposal with the following practical offer:— "You and I," he wrote me, "are probably among the busiest men in London, but as it is always the busiest men who undertaka fresh work, I am willing to serve with you on such an experimental committee, if it should be formed, and if no abler and younger member of the profession can be found who is willing to take my place."

Here, therefore, we have what may be regarded as the last words of science and of the profession on the subject, which amounts to this, that the only way of subjecting the claims of the Mattei remedies to scientific examination is by subjecting a certain number of patients to the treatment under specified conditions.

This can only be secured by a considerable outlay. In the year which has just opened as many as 30,000 persons will, in all probability die of oancer in this country alone. In the presence of this vast number of doomed, surely there will be found persons of sufficient public spirit among the profession, and among those who have means, to provide the experimental hospital which is necessary to subject the Mattei remedies to a conclusive test.

I invite any such person or persons who may read these pages to communioate with me, in order that steps may be taken to put the question to the test of a scientific experiment without farther loss of time. Meantime a Central Matteist Depot has been opened in London, at Waterloo House, 18 Pall Mall East, where the remedies can be obtained and all inquiries answered as to the Matteist treatment.