SUGAR AND TUBERCULOSIS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 65, 11 December 1918, Page 8

SUGAR AND TUBERCULOSIS

« ITALIAN SCIENTISTS THEORY OF ■ A CURE. Professor Lo Monaco, who if Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry connected with the Academy of the Lincfi, at Romi?, lately announced in an official communication that he had been able to make a great advance in the cure of tuberculosis by a new method which he claims is much simpler than fill tho serum methods experimented with during recent years. Instead of attacking the bacillus itself, whose conditions of life, reproduction, and resistance to outside influences are even now only imperfectly understood, Professor Monaco proposes to modify the surrounding!; in which the microbe lives, and thus to make its existence impossible. His paper is entitled "Action of hugars on the Bronchial Secretion," and is the result of very careful.researches made- since 1907. This Italian scientist tells how he observed the action of eugar on all the secretions of tho human organism. At first he mode detailed observations on secretion of milk, and proved that soccharose solution applied by hypodermic injection upon goats had the effect of materially increasing this secretion, even where the solution is used in a very small amount, but on the other hand, large amounts act to lessen the secretion. All these effects take place, according to tho "Scientific American," however, without modifying the composition of the milk. These curious results were, also confirmed upon women. In 19U Professor Monaco wae able to establish with certainty that the. amounts of various secretions such as saliva, bile, gastric juice and pancreatic juice, were modified to a very great degree, upon introducing sugar into the organism. He then sought to , explain the way in which-this action takes place, and found that it consists in a marked expansion and contraction of the. bipod vessels of the organs in question, and this takes place according to the amount, of sugar substance employed. This he confirmed by observing the method of action of the sugar solution in surface or deep hemorrhages, and found a marked action in flopping tho flow of blood, as well as a considerable effect, on the glnml system. Vrom these observations he was led to conclude tha.o injections of sugar would have a marked action in modifying th ,, bronchial secretions of tuberculosis putients. With this end in view, he carried on a scries of practical test?, and these far exceeded his expectations. His Iwls were made especially upon soldiers brought from the front and affected with tubcrculu.sU, and here he found a rapid improvement. Then he succeeded in making cures which were recognised ns filial by 'skilled persons. Under this treatment it is found that the cough, night sweats; and fever censed entirely.