TUBERCULOSIS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144083, 30 April 1913, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS.

THE FRIEDMANN TREATMENT.

In tho course of an address in Dunedin, Dr. Champtalonp, Professor of Bacteriology and Public Health at Otago . University, made some interesting remarks on tuberculosis, .and Dr. Friedmann’s treatment, which is at present attracting attention throughout Europe and the United States. Dr. Champtalonp said :

The bacilli represented in the,cinematograph illustrations which I now show are taken from tho expectoration of a patient suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption. They are small slender rods, which stain in a very beautiful and characteristic way, so that it 'is comparatively eaay" to recognise them when some of tiie expectoration is spread on a glass slide, stained, and examined under the microscope. . ‘ These represent tho human typo of tubercle bacillus,'which almost entirely causes consumption in man. There is another type causing tuberculosis in cattle, which may be convoyed to infants in the mill; "of tuberculous cows, and set up various forms of the disease, principally of tho intestines, bones, and bra ini It is on this very question of tho transmission of tuberculosis from tho cow to human beings, chiefly infants, that so much valuable research work has boon done, and upon which we are at present engaged in Dunedin. 1

DR. FRIEDMANN'S TREATMENT. Then there is a typo of the tubercle bacillus that causes the disease in birds, another in fish, and another in turtles. Those usually do not infect man, though a few cases are on record in winch bird tubercle bacillus has become pathogenic for man, and also in which fowls, by eating food contaminated by the human bacillus, have themselves developed tuberculosis. Ou the whole, however, man is only infected by the human and bovine types of bacilli: In connection with the tubercle bacillus which infects turtles, and which, as far as we know, does not cause the disease in man, 1 take this opportunity of explaining briefly what wo know of Dr. Friedmann’s reported cure of tuberculosis, which is exciting such world-wide interest. We are in receipt of many communications from sufferers and their friends, and it has been urged in some quarters that the Health Department should send due of its officers, trained in this branch of the work, to Berlin to investigate tho whole question. Dr. Friedmann has definitely refused to distribute his vaccine as yet, except to a few personal friends, nor has he given the medical world very much information as to his methods. All we know is that ho is said to inject first into a vein and then under the skin of his patients a quantity of ■ living turtle bacilli, which are non-virulent for mankind-r-that is, they will not set up disease. ... Whether ho prepares the injections in any way wo do not yet know, and wo must possess our bouls in patience till such time as the Berlin Public Health Department, to whom Dr. Friedmann has given his secret, is in a position to give an authoritative and unbiased opinion as to its merits. So much harm has been done in the past by rash announcement of so-called cures for tuberculosis, before they have been submitted to sufficient tests to establish their efficacy, that Friedmann's reserve is to bo commended. A significant fact is, however, that practically no notice has been taken of the subject by scientific medical journals. Tiß snch time as wo know whether or not the method is to prove the success we hope for it would be premature and useless for public officials to bo sent to investigate matters. Ono reason we have for hoping great things from this new euro is that though we have for five years or more been using injections of dead bacteria and their products with marked success in the treatment of ,a number of diseases, we are gradually learning that much more brilliant results are ■to he got by using injections of living organisms. It is - just here that the difficulty arises, for by so doing we should simply aggravate the disease, or sot it up in another part of the body. The question now is; How can we gain the maximum protection against disease, and yet use living cultures of the bacilli, without setting up a fresh focus of disease? Friedmann, by using the tubercle bacillus which infects turtles, and which, as I have explained, is not pathogenic, or disease-pro-ducing, in man, has, we hope, helped to solve the difficulty in respect to tuberculosis in the human subject.