Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1891. A Fatal Disease.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 26 March 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1891. A Fatal Disease.

Thirty thousand persons die a torturing death every year by cancer. The doctors cannot stem its advance, they only, with the knife, postpone the inevitable death. Such statements arouse a great curiosity in the man who calmly claims not only to relieve the pain, but actually to cure, that which until he made his discovery, was looked upon as incurable. On the coast of the Adriatic, to the north of Eavenna, lives Count Mattei, a man of independent fortune, but whose studies in the vegetable kingdom has led him to the discovery of a cure for cancer. The great question at Home is, is he a quack ? and the medical profession seem inclined to reply in the affirmative, setting forth that those the Count is supposed to have cured may not have been actually the subjects of cancer, and that it might be possible, even supposing it was cancer, to have passed into a quiescent state, when it may not break out into activity again n«rh»ps for years afterwards, so that

even if the Count's patients bad really cancer, it may have only been delayed, not cured. O.i the other side most distinct statements are put forth that Count Mattel's medicines cured Her Majesty's Ambassador at Vienna ; taat two cases, which the doctors had cat and treated for cancer, and gave up for lost, were cured by the Count's representative in London. One case is worth quoting fully. A Mrs Kilner, of Huddersfielu, some years back had a small growth behind the nail ot the third finger, she consulted an eminent surgeon attached to one of the London Hospitals, and he pronounced it a aareoma, which is a peculiarly malignant affection. He moved it, scraped the bone, and the lady returned home. Not long after she returned and submitted to another similar operation. In a few weeks more it recurred again, and now the first joint of the finger was removed. Still it recurred again after about the same lapse of time ; and on this occasion, when the surgeon advised the removal of the finger, the patient demurred. He counlaUed her and her husband to take tire opinion of Sir James Paget in the matter. On doing so Sir James confirmed the advice already given, and urged that the operation should be performed without delay, otherwise the oonsequences would be most serious. And now the finger was removed; and once again the lady returned home, and hoped that deliverance had come. But in vain I In about five weeks a recurrence was unmistakable, and progressing with great rapidity. All the tissues of her hand and arm on both sides swelled up, became discolored, the lymphatic glands at the end of the elbow enlarged, and the whole arm felt hot and heavy ; and with a heavy heart she came back again to London, and waited upon the surgeon who had operated hitherto, and who now proposed, without delay, to remove her arm above the elbow. She rebelled against this and decided to seek help in another quarter, and placed herself under treatment in Dr Kennedy's home, the representative of Count Mattei. She there so rapidly recovered that in five weeks she was able to return home. She has been keeping well for five months, and is now in perfect health and has no trace of the disease. Mr Stead, the editor of the lieview of Reviews has interested himself to discover the claims the Count has, and his opinion is strongly as to the bona fides of the treatment. Mr Stead has corresponded with the medical faculty and asked them to institute a series of tests, but oddly enough there appears, in the whole of the organised bodies, no funds available for such purposes. He therefore invites assistance to put the question to the test of a scientific experiment without loss of time, knowing that no one, who has lived in a household smitten by this deadly plague, will be disposed to turn away from one who appears to have actually achieved the hitherto impossible feat of curing cancer, merely because physicians who have failed are hissing "quack " at him behind their diplomas. It is earnesly to be trusted that Mr Stead will be successful in getting this grave question settled, and that it will be to prove the impossible, possible.