Can Cancer be Cured ?

Manawatu Herald, 26 September 1895, Page 3

Can Cancer be Cured ?

Tiro eminent German physicians have digcovered a method of treating cancerous ulcers which- they hope to develop into a radical cure. Like Professor Koch anbV'otife^ scientists, they warn against sensational reports legarding their discovery ; bat it is to be expected that the newspapers will publish accounts out of all proportion with the actual results of Professor Emmerich's and Dr Scholl's experiments. Cancer^ has been regarded as incurableY ' According to the Medicinieche V'Wochenschrif t, Berlin, this is no; longer the case. We iummarise as follows : "The treatment of cancer, had not made any progress for a thousand years ; if we except surgical operation, all at tempts to cure the' disease were futile until comparatively recent times. Within the last fifty years, however, German, French and English scientists notice that' cancer and sarcomea seemed to heal very quickly if the sufferer became subject to erysipelas. Observations have led to the certainty that certain tumorous { swellings disappear if erysipelas passes over them. Upon ihis Messrs Emmerich and Scholl base their treat- j meat, Sheep are artificially infected with erysipelas ; the serum taken from them is filtered and kept in a dark placfji in small viale. The trial made with the serum extend now over a number years, and are entirely satisfactory. Only two cases are recorded in which no beneficial results were obtained, and in both cases the canoes- had progressed until it became ulcerated. The effects of the serum soon became, evident. An ins jection of a few grains of the serum was followed by a disappearance of the knotty part of the. cancer, or at least its reduction to half its size. The question whether the new remedy is effective against all varieties of cancer oannot as yet be answered. The two scientists have made their studies at their own expense, and consequently not on a large scale. It seems, nevertheless, that the form of the disease is of less consequence in its successful treatment than the progress which it has made. When the cancer is in its early state there $s a much greater chance or a complete cure. Small injections of the serum are not followed by any disagreeable consequences ; neither fever nor headache has been noticed in the patients. - On the contrary, (he patients become bright and cheerful; their appetites, and consequently their strength, increases. It is, as yet, impossible to say whether the cancer parasites are destroyed by the serum. Its application will probably be most effective after an operation, to pre*> vent a relapse." Messrs Scholl and Emmerich are about to enlarge their private hospitals, in order to extend their experiments. The erysipelas strum may be obtained by applying tp Herr Dr Scholl, Thalkirchen, near Munich. To the poor the remedy will be given free of charge.