CURE OF CANCER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 283, 27 May 1912, Page 4

CURE OF CANCER.

Research into the nature of cancerous disease has for years been occupying the attention of the world's leading pathologists, and recently very substantial progress has been made. A notable point was reached last year, when it was found that cancer in'plants could be cured, and now it appears that the scourge, as it affects the human race, is about to be vanquished, for a French physician has achieved remarkable results by the use of salts of copper. The discoverer of the treatment is Dr. J. Caube du Gers. He communicated it the other day to the Society of Medical Practitioners, and a committee has been formed to investigate and report upon it. Dr. Gaube du Gers calls his method "decancerisation," which he defines as the disappearance, under the influence of a special' treatment, of every cancerous manifestation of the human body. Decancerisation, he says, is obtained by means of a colloid of protoxide of hydrated copper, introduced into the organism by hyperdermic injection. 'When the doctor had got his copper colloid his real difficulties began. He felt sure that he was in possession of an incomparable remedy for cancer, and yet he could not apply it. The colloid escaped him every time he endeavored to introduce it under the skin, and it was impossible to introduce it through the stomach, as it is destroyed by contact with gastric secretions. If he succeeded in injecting it under the skin or into a muscular mass it occasioned such pain that he-had to give up using it. For five months the struggle went on between the doctor and the colloid,* at the end of which time he conquered it. "Now,' he says, "I can handle the colloid as I like." The colloid of copper is directly injqctible; it is not toxic; the injections are painless, or very Dearly so; they are not generally followed by reaction, whether local or general; .they must be made very slowly. The doctor, who has treated thirty-three patients, says that in the case of some there was very little hope from the beginning, others are cured, others, again, are on the high road to recovery. In all the treatment has arrested the progress of cancer, and consequently rendered less painful the survival of' the wretches in whose cases the extent and depth of lesions made a cure impossible.