FRIEDMANN’S CURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 88, 21 April 1913, Page 3

FRIEDMANN’S CURE.

DR. VALENTINE’S OPINION. The following letter from Dr. Valintine, Chief Health Officer, recently appeared in the Wanganui Herald:— Dear Sir,—-I beg to acknowledge your letter of April 9 with regard to Mr T. Rout, of Wanganui. The proposal to send Mr Rout to Berlin that he can obtain the advantages of Dr. Friedmann’s treatment is an excellent one. Though 1 have telegraphed to tho High Commissioner and also to bacteriologists in London to make enquiries as to tho efficiency of this treatment, I have been unable so far to get anything definite. , ; , .

It would appear from a discussion on Dr. Friedmann’s treatment,, set forth in one of the Berlin medical journals, that tho medical men present were by no means assured as to its efficacy. Dr. Friedmann .is hampering tho medical profession by bis persistent refusal to give bacteriologists cultures of his organism. It is quite possible that Mr Rout will be able to give information that will be of value to the public of the minion. You ivill note that Dr. Friedmann’s letter to Mr Rout simply confirms what I have said with regard to the attitude he had adopted. As to the main purpose.of your letter, there is little probability of Mr Rout being interfered with on his journey to (Germany, provided he is careful to' carry out the usual precautions to prevent his disseminating the infection. If possible, ho should obtain a -cabin to himself, but, if not, if be is, careful to disinfect bis sputum there '' should he no danger. I quitb agree with you that it should he north the money that-the Wanganui people have so generously given, even if it is only to ascertain the efficacy of Dr. Friedmann’s treatment.—Yours faithfully,

(Signed) M. A. VALENTINE,

Chief Health Officer

A New York millionaire who is afflicted with tuberculosis offered Dr. Friedmann £IOOO for one injection of his serum. The physician, however, declined the offer, oil the'ground that ho did not desire to show favouritism to anyone. He it treating all applications by his consumptive patients, in the order of their "priority. It was in November last year that Friedmann brought his new; < jnethojl for the cure of consumption .to, public notice by a lecture delivered before the Berlin Medical. Association. He produced a number of cases which he alleged; had beCh cured 1 by his pro- 1 paration, and announced that.- his preparation lonly failed;'in ,j the most Advanced cases of tuberculosis. He contended, that it was practically a sure remedy in consumption and in tuberculosis of theßffionos,' muscles, and skin.

In that very meeting of the Berlin Medical Association (says the Berlin' correspbiid^dt v of a Lonclbn" paper) Tlio warning :voiii ( el] r of several eminent men were rjaikbff-T but they'’did not, succeed in Dr. Friedmann to life the veil which shrouded; his preparation. Brit’ Reports went out into the entire wßiTd about that Berlin physicians were enthusiastic About the new method, and that Friedmann’s preparation marked a new era in the successful treatment' of consumption. People forgot tho sorrowful failures of Koch with his tuberculin. They forgot how consumptives streamed to Berlin on tho announcement of Koch’s “remedy,” and the thousands of dismal disappointments which followed.

The object of all investigators in this region is to find a tubercle-bacil-lus which will have the necessary healing power on human beings without being so strong as to make the person operated on tuberculous. This is why investigators turned to coldblooded animals like the tortoise or turtle. Friedmann’s new remedy is a preparation from tortoise bacilli. It may bo the remedy for which the world has waited so long, but the number and character of the patients already treated is so limited, and the period of time which has elapsed since their treatment is so brief, that it would be most illogical to cojne to definite conclusions.

It is exceedingly difficult to form any opinion as to what the upshot of Friedmann’s efforts to patent his discovery will be. The question asked in Berlin is, if Friedmann was convinced that only he and a, few other physicians were capable of working with the new preparation, why did he not continue at work with these colleagues of his, and pile 'up indubitable and more numerous results and cures before he launched his discovery at the meeting of the Berlin Medical Association? Physicians are consequently compelled to observe the strictest reserve in this matter. They must not jump at conclusions. Their profession is too grave a factor in the happiness of the*-race to permit of any hasty judgments. And patients and their friends will do well to accommodate themselves to this reserve.