New Brains for the Weak Minded.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 December 1914, Page 3

New Brains for the Weak Minded.

That the feeble-minded may be given more grey matter —that is, literally supplied with more brains until they are normal—is within range of possibility, according to discoveries set forth at the Cong-re?! of Medicine in Paris when the method called "organotherapy" was discussed. Only in recent years Dr. BrownSeqiiarcl met with considerable sue■;«.s in treating diseased organs with medicines made from similar organs. That is, for tror.V.e with the thyroid gland an extract );i;:d< from the thjroid gland of the sho-"-p was made and the treatment waF fairly successful. For this reason this treatment i; called "organotherapy,'• or building up or doctoring one organ with extracts from a similar one. Bui all this is by no means new. Jr fact it was practised two thousand years ago. Of course, in those days, such medical practice was extrem-.'!> crude, and it ' may have been done under a superstition, hut the fact remains this method was in use, and it is as well to give those ancient practitioners the benefit of thu doubt and say they used logic in their reasoning. At the recent Congress of Medicine held in Paris a widely-known Roumanian physician, Dr.,lscovesco., gave an address in which he notonly referred to this practice of two thousand years ago, but outlined the wonders that had result en from the recent revival of this method. Great strides have nowbeen made in it, it seems, since Dr. Brown-Sequard had the temerity to attempt it not long ago. "Two thousand years ago," explained the doctor, "to patients suffering fron. an affection of any particular organ were given the same organ of an animal to eat. with the idea of repairing the local waste and damage. Thus consumptives were ordered to eat sheer, lungs, while for dyspeptics was prescribed a diet in which the stomach of calves ranked as the chiel item." Each organ, stated Dr. Tscovesco, contains a special chemical which he calls "lipoid." According to this doctor a long series of experiments show, beyond all question, that the lipoid of a given organ, when, injected into a living organism, goes straight to the same organ to strengthen and reinforce it, and the latter, after a short time, also increases in bulk. Special importance is attached to the treatment of anemia by this method. The old treatment with iron, declares Dr. Iscovesco, was never absolutely satisfactory, while if a lipoid extract of blood corpuscles is administered to pa.tientE the corpuscles rapidly multiply and the anaemia disappears. Probably the most startling suggestion made by the doctor was that of curing the feeble-minded by.this method. That is, this physician I held that so long as organotherapy worked so well along other lines, it stood within reason that it would work well with the feebleminded. By giving- iliem a lipoid extract of grey matter, ah extract lof the brain, it ought to increase their mental faculties and in time give to them normal brain. Of course, if this is possible, it will be on« of the greatest wonders and most valuable things Ik modern, or ancient, for that matter, medicine. To be able to cure the mentally unfit, to make good, hri.ht citizens out of the thousands of inmates of homes for foeblc-mindel and to set them out in the world +o do \their share, of the work would mean one of the greatest of gains known to man.—-".Bud-get."