MEDICAL RESEARCH

Southland Times, Issue 18858, 25 June 1920, Page 6

MEDICAL RESEARCH

CURE OF HEART DISEASE. DISCUSSION IN HOUSE OF COMMONS. During discussion on (lie Dogs Protection Bill in the House of Commons recently sonic interesting information was given with regard to the progress of medical research into diseases of the heart, and particularly fibrillation of the auricles, which produces palpitation of the heart. In the ordinary course of events, the public would not have been told of the progress of this research until complete success, on which an improved form of treatment of diseases of the heart con'd he based, had been reached; but in ordi-r to allow this research to he carried on un.ii ile goal, which is now in sight, is reached, if was necessary to defeat the Dogs Protection Bill. In the end, (he bill, winch was a private measure, was talked out. S;r Frederick Banbury, one of the two members of Parliament for (he City of London, introduced the Dogs Protection Bill, after having failed to make any progress with a similar measure which he introduced last year. His obpect is to prevent dogs being used for vivisection. The latest figures available show that in 1013 about 88,000 animals were used for vivisection, but less than 500 of these were dogs. For certain experiments dogs are preferred because the dog’s physiological processes anproach more closely to those of man than those of any other animal. Sir Frederick Danbury knows nothing about thevalue of medical knowledge gained bv means of vivisection, or the way in which vivisection experiments are carried out. He is a fine sample of the old-fashioned English Tory; he has a very fender heart for dqgs, because dogs are the friend of man, but he has very little sympathy for human beings, particularly those who belong to the working class. He is a wealthy man—a bank director and a railway director—and has opposed every democratic measure that has come before Parliament during the fourteen years that he has been a member. In 1920 he is to be found opposing the nationalisation of railways with much the same arguments that he employed in opposing old age pensions in 190 S. “If we kill a few dogs in the interests of humanity, what do we kill V" asks Professor Thomas Lewis, of the University College Hospital, London, who is conducting the research work into diseases of the •heart. “Do we kill the clean and caredfor animals of comfortable homes? Not at all. We kill, painlessly-, mark you. dogs of (he slums; dogs such as the London police take in thousands to the lethal chambers of Battersea each year. Half the dogs which I kill, show breast bones which have been broken by- violence. How else, but by kicks from heavily- shod feet ? In thc-’e vivisection experiment;? there has been no suffering of any kind; neither will there be in the experiments which are to come. Of that the public may- rest absolutely assured. The experiments are performed from first to last under the deej'est surgical anaesthesia, and the animals are not allowed to recover.” Concerning the necessity for continuing experiments on dogs, Professor Lewis states:—“ Almost the whole progress which modern science has taken in diseases of the heart hinges directly- or indirectly upon experiments conducted on dogs. Make it illegal to investigate these diseases in the manner proposed in Sir Frederick Banbury s bill, and research upon heart disease in this country- receives a blow from which it v ill not recover. The conditions now called fibrillation of the auricles, to take one of numerous examples, was recognised to occur in man tus a result of experiments on six London mongrels. I- ibnllation is a very- grave disorder; it is present in from 60 to 70 per cent, of all those patients who are admitted to our great London hospitals suffering from cardiac failure, and in these patients it is the chief cause of failure. The importance of thoroughly- understanding this common and serious malady- cannot be overrated. The firs) and main stop in this investigation was taken when the disorder was recognised in man. The second. and naturally essential, step is to discover what fibrillation of the auricles actually is. That cannot be done by observation upon patients it can only- be done by observing the condition in the exposed heart of an animal, in which an identical condition is produced. This work has been in progress for twelve months, and the second step is all hut complete; we arc within sight of cur goal, and when it is reached, as it will he reached within a few months, it will have been so'.ely througii experiments on Loudon mongrels. As a result of this twelve months’ work we have been able to obtain a far deeper insight into the condition; we begin at last clearlv to see the causes which are at work in pioducing it in man.” Dr. Walter Elliot. M.P., who talked out far Frederick Banbury’s bill in the House of Commons, referred, in the course of his speech, to the important work on which Professor Lewis is engaged. Meuical re search,” he said, “has recently made great progress into the causes of "one form of palpitation of the heart, from which 20.000 pensioners from the army alone are suffering. I have here diagrams showing the heart beat- in man and the heart beat in (iog?, and the diagrams are practically identical. I have also diagrams showing disease of the heart in dogs and in men. These experiments have proved practically end conclusively- what is the cause of heart disease. The heart beats start by an impulse beginning at the (op of the heart, and passing down in a certain sort of current throughout the muscle. In hea.t disease the muscle fibres are faulty, the circuit is bad, and the impulse, instead of passing straight down through the heart, is broken up. and the heart goes into what i.s called fibrillation. Each muscle fibre batons twitching independently, and in some cases one single muscle impulse gets loose, so to speak, and courses round and round the heart. If the circuit is faulty, rye must improve the circuit, and by altering the chemical composition of the blood by means of certain chemical sails we hops to be able to improve it, and to set this lluttcrina. palpitating heart beating strongly, steadily, and regularly.”