PREVENT APPENDICITIS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 154, 17 July 1937, Page 3

PREVENT APPENDICITIS

: Canadian Scientist's Research Frevention of appendicitis is seen as ft possible consequence of researches made in the.Iaboratorie* of McGill TTniversity, Montreal, Canada. The cause of the disease, according to the lxndings of Dr. Hans Selye, assistant por.fessor of biochemistry in Dr. J. B. ColLp's department; is histamine, * This is a physiological substance normallv present in the blood, but which, under certain conditions, exists in too great * quantity. Tnjected into the blood - stream of xates in the McGill experiments, .histamine prodaced appendfcitis. It is also suspected of playing a part in hay fever and asthma and relatei) conditions. Commenting on the discovery recont,ly, scientists in their usual cautious way said that it "might conceivably" result in prevention of appendicitis. It is a little too" early yet, they say, to epeak of "cure,'_' bnt Dr. Selye has deinonstrated that it is possible to control the evil effects of too much histamine. By .using small quantities of diseaseproducing substances, he has succeeded in immunizing his appondicitis-infested rats, in -the same way as human beiugs are made immune of typhoid and other maladies. Assuming . that too much histamine eauses appendicitis in humans as well as rats, Dr. Selye expresses the hope that his work will bring about sufficient knowledge to suggest ways of immunxzation. Up to* the present medical research workers have been limited in their study of appendicitis to the diseased appendix after it has "been removed from the body. In Dr. Selye 's experiments a dirfct approach was made for the iirst time. For the lirst time tho disease was produced in a normal organism and then cured. Dr. Selye, whose work will bring added distinction to McGill as well as to himself, has been studying the qucstion for a long period. He has been oi$ the Universily staff for live years, going tcf Montreal from the University of Frague, . He is a native of Vienna. The rep&rf of.his discoveries and evpcriments is published in the current lssue of the Canadian Medical Association jGurnal.