DEADLY DRUG.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2124, 6 May 1920, Page 4

DEADLY DRUG.

SAVES THE DYING AND KILLS OTHERS. Milan, February 25. A special cablegram to the Rome newspaper 11 'tempo, from Rio de Janeiro, relates the wonderful discovery of a, cure for leprosy, by virlue of which a number of patients in (he huge leper asylum al Tocnndula, near Belem, in Brazil, have been completely healed. This discovery is the fruit of many years of research on the part of Dr. Chermont de Miranda, a .noted dermatologist, of Belem Oily.

it consists of a lim-lure-extract - ed from a local plant known among the natives as “assacu.” This plant is so poisonous that even a small quantity of the extract would suffice to kill a normal human being. But lepers can tolerate it, and on its being’ administered in gradually increasing doses it is found that I heir external lesions start healing very quickly, while after a short period of convalescence every trace of the malady disappears. One of the discoverer's colleagues, .Professor Camillus Saiga do, has risked an immediate large-dose treatment in advanced cases, with surprisingly successful results. Brazilian medical scientists regard the assacu discovery as of the first importance, and believe it is destined for the happy extirpation of this terrible widespread disease from both Latin America and the Asiatic Continent.