VIRUS DISEASES

Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1930, Page 8

VIRUS DISEASES

RESEARCH COUNCIL’S REDOUT,

EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE.

The animal report of the British .Medical Research Council for 1928-20, iiicnv issued, contains a fascinating rc- ■■ rd of the many aspects of scientific and medical investigation proceeding at centres up and down the country, the study of which occupies a very important place in the work of the council.

Virus diseases' include such weil

■:n u examples as measles, sleepy sickness, small-pox, influenza, possibly the common cold, and possibly psittacosis. The study of viruses is concerned with “an invisible underworld of Indies that in size stand somewhere between the largest known molecules •of dead organic matter and the smallest microscopic bacteria. These cannot be seen as delinite structures by ordinary microscopic means, and the relation to them of certain objects made visible by special optical methods is still a matter of discussion/’

The report adds: “The reward i'oi the solution of the present mysteries will certainly he immense in the new control it will bring over diseases that kill by the million.”

animal and vegetable.

“Not only the disorders of human kind enumerated above, but such animal diseases as foot-and-mouth disease oir swine fever have to be considered, while there may be added obstructive disease affecting potato, iooaeco, an banana crops. . “That success can be obtained in dealing with these virus diseases is well illustrated in the story of how distemper in dogs can he stamped out. This is now possible by a method of •protective immunisation’ whereby two inoculations are given, producing a lasting and solid immunity to distemper, similar to that resulting from a natural attack of the- disease. •

“Over two thousand doses of this prophylactic material have now been issued from the laboratories of the Council, and veterinary practitioners can now obtain it through a wellknown firm of manufacturing chemists. The great success met with in distemper has been copied on a smaller scale in fowl-plague, and the results obtained encourage the belief that some of the other virus diseases mentioned above will gradually come under control.”

Of purlieu la. r interest in tile report is tlio question;' of wluit is called “clinical research arid experimental medicine.”

Fur many years it lias been held that the scientific method of work and inquiry could not be applied outside the .laboratory.

EXP Ell 1M ENT A L M EDI Cl NE

The council, however, is now definitely satisfied that there is a science of experimental medicine, aim

it is proposed to devote more time t the furtherance of recruiting youn: workers of ability in the near futon, who will Ixj prepared to take up tin somewhat novel career of doctors win bfcudy disease in the living human being as a whole-time occupation without ever doing any practise, am who are not at all concerned with diagnosis and treatment of such individuals.

Experiments have been proceeding upon the effects of irradiation b.* ultra-violet light upon resistance to bacterial infection, and the results showed that, provided such artificial sunlight treatment was applied before infection took place, some in-..icius-d resistance could he obtained. Work on vitamins continues to yield important results. The artificial production of vitamin D, which protects against the development of rickets, has IBd to there being available a. very concentrated form of vitamin. Ibis is sold commercially under various names. It has been discovered that there is definite danger in giving too much of vitamin D. At one time impurities in this substance were thought to be the cause of the ill-effects produced, but it is now certain that it is the actual vitamin. It is important, therefore, that all administration of even such substances as cod-liver oil, which contains this vitamin, should be under proper control.