MEDICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 56

MEDICAL NOTES.

CANCER CURE EXPERIMENTS. PREMIER AWARD TO A WOMAN. PROFESSOR ELY-KILLER. (Fbom Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 23. Shortly before his death the late Professor Harold Maxwell Lefroy, one of the greatest authorities on scientific insecticides, it was disclosed at a meeting of the members of the Institute of Patentees, fia,l invented a spray for killing flies. Professor A. M. Low,“ in the course of a lecture on domestic and utilitarian inventions, said the device, which embodied all the attributes of a successful patent — simple, cheap, and foolproof—was not at the moment on the market. It would be selling shortly, however, at the cost of a few shillings. He described the invention as somewhat in the form of an ordinary bicycle pump. It had no other effects than the killing of flies. This" device of Professor Lefroy’s would be of tremendous value, and the spray was in a fine form, so that it would not make curtains, furniture, or people in the room damp by falling upon them. COST OF MALARIA.

“The direct annual cost of sickness and death attributable to malaria,” said Dr Andrew Balfour, director of the I»ndon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in the course of a lecture, “is between £50,000,000 and £60,000,000. A further vast loss is caused by diminished industrial efficiency as a result of the disease.” People did not realise, he continued, that malaria was constantly warring against the British Empire, picking off its officers, attacking its mercantile marine, and crippling trade. Although we knew how to iiustrate the activities of the parasite, we were not applying our knowledge save in a few localities. The annual world death-toll from this disease exceeded 2,000,000.

WOMEN’S MEDICAL SUCCESSES. Out of 114 medical degrees conferred at Glasgow University 35 were for women. For the first time in the history of the university the premier award of the session, the Brunton memorial prize for the most distinguished medical graduate, went to a woman, Miss Janet Niven, who also took the degrees of M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine) and Ch.B. (Bachelor of Surgery) with honours. CANCER RESEARCH. After years of experiment (says the Sunday Express) Dr Thomas Lumsden, of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, lias discovered an antiserum which can be obtained cheaply in large quantities from horses, and which has completely cured cancer in animals inoculated with tumour cells. The doctor is hopeful, from .his experiments, that the antiserum will prove equally effective in the case of human being, and he has given up his private practice in order to devote himself exclusively to experimental work under a grant of £IOOO a year for six years made by the Grand Council of the British Empire Cancer Campaign. In an interview Dr Lumsden is reported as saying: “While it is not possible to state certainly that the antiserum will cure cancer in people we can sav that the possibilities are very hopeful. We are only in the Experimental stage at present, and it will take months, and possibly years, before we shall be far enough advanced to attempt to cure cancer in human beings. “So far my experiments have been in curing an innoculated tumour, and that is a very different thing from curing a spontaneous new growth. But, in spite of this consideration, the results do soom to indicate a hopeful line of inquiry. The antiserum used can be obtained in large quantities from horses, so that if its use does prove to be effective there will be no difficulty in obtaining a cure. If the antiserum does have the same result on men as on animals, cancer will have become curable, but there are many stages on the journey to be reached before we can come to that. However, the outlook is very hopeful, and it seems very possible that cancer will soon be conquered at last.” MODERN DOCTORS AND THE OLD PHYSICIANS. Are modern doctors as good as the physicians of old? This was one of the points brought forward bv Dr Andrew Balfour, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in his presidential address delivered to the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Medical Society of London. “In certain directions,” Dr Balfour declared, “I very much doubt if the modem doctor with the laboratory at his back and with his brain crammed full of scientific and semi-scientific knowledge, is as good at the bedside or can use his remedies so effectively as those who had to trust their powers of observation, their reasoning faculties, and their intimate acquaintance with the materia medica which they had usually gained in the pursuit of their studies and during their careers as apprentice* in practice. We modern doctors when practising have obtained the greater part of our knowledge from these pioneers, and we cannot but wonder at some of these clinicians who in former days, relying on ‘the seeing eye and the understanding heart,’ were able to grapple so successfully with intricate problems and to handle diseases in a way that even to-day commands the utmofft lespect.” RHEUMATISM IN CHILDREN. Attention was called bv Mr James M. Ren del, the chairman of the General Pur-

poses Committee, at a meeting of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, to the pre valence of rheumatism among children, and to the urgent need for some better provision than that existing at present for its treatment and cure. Mr Rendel, in moviug that the question be referred to the General Purposes Committee to consider and report what action it was desirable for the board to take in the matter of the'provision of accommodation for such children, said the intimate connection between heart disease and rheumatism in childhood waa not generally lealised. It was universally recognised among physicians that an enormous proportion of heart disease in adult and early adult life was directly traceable to rheumatism in childhood. This was apparently through the ignorance of the public as to the seriousness of the complaint and to the want of anything like adequate provision for the rest and treatment which was absolutely essential if the worst consequences of the disease were to tie avoided. After discussion, Mr Rendel’s motion was agreed to. , KING’S DENTIST ON THE CURE FOR PYORRHOEA. “Pyorrhoea is easily curaDle in its early' stages. It is quite easy to prevenvt it if the proper measures are taken. All that is necessary is to provide proper friction to the gums twice a day, morning and night, by a tooth brush and then the condition cannot arise.” This was the statement made by Sir Harry Baldwin, surgeon-dentist to the King, to the People’s League of Health. Disease of the teeth, or dental caries, was due to the fermentation particularly of starches and sugars which lodged in cavities and as the result of fermentation released acids which dissolved the lime contained in the teeth. It only occurred in civilised man, and Nature tried to remedy the evil by calsifying the pulp. Unfortunately, the process was usually too slow to be effective. In view of the fact that decay was due to acids, it might seem that alkaline dentifrices would remedy the evil, but this was not so, because they reduced the alkalinity of the saliva and the supply of natural ptyalin, which dissolved fragments of substances such as bread. Fruit was excellent because it not only stimulated the ideal saliva but, if hard, actualy cleansed the teeth. He was not able to recommend any dentifrice, though many of them polished the teeth, and in his view the oest tooth wash was a solution of salt. An amount corresponding in size to a small walnut should be dissolved in a third of a tumbler of water.