TUBERCULOSIS “CURE.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4322, 26 September 1921, Page 4

TUBERCULOSIS “CURE.”

DOCTORS AND SPAHLINGER > TREATMENT. A strange and dramatic event, wholly unknown to most or the audience and delegates, took place at the anti-tuberculosis cpnference at Westminster, London. M. Spahlinger, the young and brilliant Swiss bacteriologist, the only man who claims to have a cure' for advanced tuberculosis, came quietly and unseen into the hall. He had hurried over from Geneva, at the instance of various persons who wishpd him to make a statement at the conference, for what he hates most of all, as he told me (writes a special correspondent), is being interrupted at his work. The idea was at first welcomed. He saw the president (Sir Robert Philip), who was sympathetic, sat up all night preparing his statement, and, when I spent an hour with him in the afternoon, complained of being “dreadfully stupid’’ owing to want of sleep. A number of his patients—some cured of .advanced tuberculosis just before the war—were collected together: I spoke with half a dozen, mostly hard-working men, before seeing M. Spahlinger.. They were all enthusiasts, and said .the cure was radical. They were examined by a number of medical men. “No Cures Discussed.” The few whp knew of Spahlinger’s presence were much agog to hear the statement. At the last moment it Was suggested to M. Spahlinger that the conference did not meet to discuss cures. That side would have prominence at next year’s cpnference in Brussels.. So .this London conference came to an end without so much as an allusion to the Spahlinger .treatment or. to M. Spahlinger’s presence in-London. The nature of the treatment was explained to me (adds the correspondent). The essence of it is the mixture of a number of antitoxias (or sera) prepared from a large number of animals. This serum may take four years to prepare, though the combined vaccines, which ed many of the cures, are - prepared much’ more quickly. It ft curious that nothing is being done in England to test a remedy that has some devoted adherents, though it has been met with general and professional incredulity. This is partly due, no doubr. to the small amount of the material procurable or prepared.

90 Per Cent. pX Civilised People Affected. “About 90 per cent, of the population in civilised' countries have got tuberculosis,” said one delegate at the conference, and this remarkable statement may be said roughly to express the geneial view of the conference. Professor Calmette, who opened the discussion on the ways in which tuberculosis is spread throughout the world, said “It may be asserted that in the large overcrowded cities of Europe—almost, no one who is born there and lives on to adult life escapes tuberculosis infection. ; “Some curious facts result from this. What the French call ‘occult carriers’ are everywhere, as you may see by the sudden and rapid spread of the disease among savage tribes that were free from i‘t till visited by apparently healthly merchants and travellers,. All children, white or coloured, are in the same position as these savage tribes and pick up the disease from occult or open carriers. If the attack is slight it may make them afterwards immune from the disease.”