MEDICAL RESEARCH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 793, 16 April 1910, Page 7

MEDICAL RESEARCH.

MODERN TREATMENT OF DISEASE. (By TeleKranh.-Special Oorressondonl.) Auckland, April 15. A medical congress, at wliich 'iinportaut results of reseatoli work were made known, -was recently held at Jiamla. Major A. Hooton, of th,e Indian JVxedical &rnce, who arrived in Auckland by the Morea on Wednesday, attended the conference, which, v/as tho first hold under tho /auspioes of ijhe Far _ Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, as the representa-tire of tho Government of India, and delegates wero also present from Ceylon, Singapore, Siam, Hong-Kong, Japan, and the Germaji possessions in. China. • In referring, in tho course of an.interview, to tho success of the meeting, Major Hooton said that one of tho most remarkable rosults.made known referred to leprosy, tho bacillus of which, may now be said almost with certainty to have been atlast successfully cultivated. It was also announced that, a new treatment had been evolved for cancer, which appears, to bo most promising. . Tire treatment has been tried for nearly. a year,-and the Manila dootors -state that almost all tho eases treated have improved: materially. Major..Hooton. added that ii was too oarly-yot to say wlietlier. the: cure was peiTiianoiit or not, but.he. stated a numbor of cases had Ikou treated which would notothorwise have been' treated, and the persons wefo still living after a oonsiderablo period, and wero much improved. I ho" treatment, consists of an injection of vaccine. '.-'''.

A leading Auokisnd doctor speaks of the treatment' here inferred to as highly kiwrtant. "Nearly, till diseaaee which have been thought to bo produced by the action of germs," ho s»id, 'fhaye at last had the effecting genri isolated and cultures' mado from it. : This has boen done with leprosy—in. fact one may say with all germ diseases, or diseases cansod by germs. Ono. cxcbptipn stajide. out, nwnely, hydroplwbja. Pasteur first'undertook his cure- of rabies by the: injection of dried glyeerinated spjnal cord of rabWfcs which ■ had died of rabies he ivas acting then, and ■sijccc«fjilly'M.all the world kno-ira, as \yb.to-day aro doing.: in other words/ tr«»ting the oaw» a' hair of the dog that bit him.' . This'.socnis the more wonderful,since no ono kilows to tho present moment the gorm 6f hydrophobia. ■„■ That there is a germ praoticnlly gpos .without saying, and no doubt it-wifl some day.bo discovered in somo simple and possibly accidental manner. Oajicer,' oii the other hand, is baffling in this respect that nti, ono/knows' its canso-T-whether there is a germ. or whether it be-a flhango in tho cells coinposing the tissues .themsclves;.:. Vfhea ■ tho.cause is found, successful: Weatmeni ,always'.-folhws._- This is our difficulty with, cancer. Now wo pome, to the yaccinb. treatment. This'was : firstduced some years ago ,by : a , .medical' man observing that ono of his.pancer oivses just operated upon, and really inoperable,' developed on the second day. after tho operaiioii an acute attack of erysipelas. Strange to say as the erysipelas abated the-'f ungating cancerous tumour dwindled and the patient' recovered. Noting this the medical man_ prepared an injection of virulent erysipelas germs which he injected into I his, next cancerous patient.. In. this case erysipelas developed very seriously and nearly endangered tho patient's life, but tho cancerous growth improved ro- : From this there followed tno injection of a vaccino composed of tho germs.of erysipelas and the germs called bacillus -prodigiosus, the lastnamed of which is the rod mould which is occasionally seen on moist : musty b'read, .-This itself has no action on tho living body, but combined with Ithe vaccine of erysipelas" it producos marked healing changes in fungating opii*eliomatous.cancers., This evidently Iβ the vacoine or form of vaccine to which Major Hpoton refers, and' no the treatment known as the' opsonic or , vaccine treatment will some day lead to the discovery of a still battor and more »otive vaccine."