MEDICAL TRIUMPHS.

Matamata Record, Volume VI, Issue 474, 24 September 1923, Page 4

MEDICAL TRIUMPHS.

VICTORIES OVER DISEASE. Scientists Claim Great Advances. A triumphant scries of victories over diseases once believed to be incurable have brought mankind's war on microbes into a new phase (writes the medical correspondent of the Sunday Express). The results of a great drive against cancer, consumption, paralysis and epilepsy, waged silently by scientists in laboratories and clinics in every civilised country are now becoming known. Striking gains have been recently announced. Dr. George Dreyer, professor of pathology, at Oxford, made the dramatic statement in a lecture at St. Mary's Hospital that he has developed and brought into action , a weapon which strips the tuberculosis microbes of its armour. This weapon has been used in the London Hospital with great success. The coming defeat of epilepsy, another " incurable " disease, is indicated by other scientists who have worked on the theory that it is caused by the functional failure of the parathyroid glands. It is now proved that these glands can be stimulated by the injection of an alkaline solution and by careful supervision of diet. Science, mindful of the danger of raising unfounded hope, has not made these announcements rashly. They are as carefully worded as a general's official statements during a war. Their significance to humanity is immeasurable. It is not long since consumption "cures" were promised onlv bv quacks, who knew that they could not fulfil their promises. Today they are discussed by eminent men of science who know what they are talking about. Professor Georges Dreyer made his announcement before an audience of his learned colleagues. He told them that, he had discovered a way by which acid-fast microbes such as tuberculosis might be injected into the body of an individual, rendering him immune to the disease, or curing him if he were tubercular. Tubercular and certain other microbes are protected bv a fatty substance so that the bodv has not hitherto been ab e to to digest them when injected dead, and has therefore not been able to produce the anti-bodies in the serum to fight the living microbes. Professor Dreyer treats the microbes with formalin and acetone, thus oliminating the fats and making it possible for the body tissues to absorb the cerms and throw off the beneficient anti-bodies. Cases of lupus have been healed by this treatment in the London Hospital, and good results have been obtained in cases of tuberculosis of the joints. The treatment caused increase of and decrease of sputum in tuberculosis of the lungs. This is not the only battlefield on which consumption has suffered defeats. The serum discovered in 1021 bv Dr. Henri Spahlinger, a Swiss scientist, has proved so successful that the British Ministry of of Health has asked for a supply of his serum and vaccine. Experiments and Australian serum are being conducted in the borough of Poplar. The insulin treatment of diabetes is one. of the most recent and most important triumphs of science. Insulin is a drug derived from the -.pancreas of cattle and diabetes, like cancer, is a disease which is increasing m all civilised countries. There is a connection between these diseases, and the conditions under which civilised people live. Science is trymg to discover this connection. Insulin is now in use in St. Bartholomew's, Guys, St Thomas', the London, and the University College Hospitals, and at Sheffield and Edinburgh. The medical world, thanks to this drug, is satisfied that diabetes is no longer an incurable disease. Even paresis, a terrible scourge which paralvses and kills hundreds of thousands or people every year, is less terrible to-day than it was only a few. weeks ago. Science has discovered a new curative agent called tryparsamid, of remarkable potency. A violent patient, who destroyed furniture and had to be kept in bed with hot packs, resumed his trade of carnenter within three months after the beghvninc of his treatment with trynarsamid. Another had the delusion? of a madman. He was cured in four months. The war asrainst paresis has been going on since 1919, but not until recentlv lijiv'o scientists disclosed the extent of their victories. At the same time Professor Wagner Jeuregg, the eminent Austrian neurologist, has fought with paralysis, and his results were announced recently. He has obtained complete cures at his clinics at Vienna and Prague by a treatment which includes the injection of malaria germs and neo-salvai'san. After a few days the natient gives characteristic symptoms of malaria. This is treated with quinine. Other drags are. injected, ami the pnvalsyis disappears. Tt is not a rapid treatment, but it is apnarentlv effective.