DR. BROWN-SEQUARD’S DISCOVERY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1962, 29 October 1889, Page 4

DR. BROWN-SEQUARD’S DISCOVERY.

Melbourne, Oct. 15. Dr. Crivelli, of Albert Park, South Melbourne, has been instituting some experiments with the Brown-Sequard system of medical treatment, acting under specific instructions from its discoverer and Dr. Yariot, chief of the laboratory of the School of Medicine in Paris, and a representative of the Argus who waited upon him has made the following report: —“ In the first place Dr. Crivelli explained his method of operating. A gland is taken from a live guinea pig with, apparently, very little pain to the animal. The wound occasioned by the incision is carefully sewn up. I saw two guinea pigs which had been thus dealt with two days before, frisking about as lively as possible. In a small mortar, which has been carefully cleansed with pure alcohol, the gland is placed, together with a small quantity of distilled water, cat to pieces and macerated. The solution is then strained through fine muslin, and a specific quantity of the fluid is hypodermically injected by means of a syringe, such as is used for the injection of morphine, into both sides of the stomach, The operation is attended by a burning sensation at first, which passes off in a few hours and is then followed by a sense of relief. The six cases tried, and in each case successfully, were the following:-—‘No. 1, A.D., aged fiftyseven, has been long suffering from spinal disease, and was so debilitated that he could not walk without assistance, He underwent two injections, the second on the Ist October. He writes from Moreland that he feels quite lively, that he sleeps well, and that his appetite has returned. Mentions that whereas he could not descend the railway steps without help, be found himself able to mount them freely on his return. No. 2, 0.D., aged sixty-four, has been ill for twelve months with erysipelas and pneumonia. [Regained his appetite and enjoyed a refreshing sleep after the injection, and is once more capable of doing a good day’s work, ibis patient expressed himself as highly delighted with the cure. No. 3, E. F., aged sixty-seven. This is the ease of an innkeeper, who has been a free liver, and has been long suffering from acute pleurisy, accompanied by great weakness and extreme depression. The injection was made on Ist October, and he writes that he feels like a young man, has recovered his appetite, and wants to quit his bed. No. 4, G. H., aged seventy-three, a laboring man, who has been afflicted with chronic bronchitis and general debility, incapacitating him for work. He has undergone two injections, on the Ist and 2nd October, has been able to resume his old employment, and says he feels a different man and five years younger. His /wife, who accompanied him, stated that the improvement in his health is already quite wonderful. No. 5, I. J„ aged forty-four, has lived in India, where he suffered sunstroke, and has acquired the habit of injecting morphia. He suffers from weakness, cramps in the stomach, night sweats, and sleeplessness. He has been for a fortnight at a stretch without sleep. The injection which was made on the 2nd October has not been so remarkably efficacious as in the previous cases, but he says that he feels 20 per cent, better than before. His head is fresher and lighter, and bis mind much clearer. No. 6, K.L., aged thirty-four, a teacher of languages. In this case the patient happens to be a personal friend of the writer, and a gentleman who is not at all likely to allow his imagination to influence his judgment of the effects of his treatment. For some months past he has been suffering from nervous prostration and physical debility, brought on by mental overwork and anxiety. He became timid, embarrassed, despondent, and life-weary, and quite incapable ef serious application to intellectual pursuits. He describes the result of the injection as so astounding as to be almost incredible. To quote his own words, ‘ I feel as I felt when I was twenty years of age, and I am better in health than ever I was before. My mental vigor has; suddenly returned, and I hay® already planned a book which I intend to write during the midsummer and publish in France.’ Whether the elements introduced into the system by tbe injection of this glandular substance proceed to build up new and healthy structure, and to multiply with the rapidity characteristic of the raw material of physical, life, and whether the effects of the injections are permanent, or only temporary, are matters at present for speculation and conjecture. M. Brown-Sequard has repeated the experiment upon himself, after an interval of three months, and is of opinion that he has thus secured a reserve of vital force, which will not require replenishing for another twelve months, if then. But one thing appears to be tolerably clear, and that is that the foreign matter is absorbed into the system with great celerity, and that its action upon the spinal column and the brain is powerful and immediate. In case No. 4 it produced a feeling of giddiness and confusion, which lasted for a short time, and was succeded by increased lucidity of vision as well as of mental percept -a. In case No. 6 the patient" is emphatic in asserting that he feels a capacity for intellectual work and power of ratiocination which

he had previously begun to fear he had lost irretrievably.” Dr Crivelli speaks with becoming reserve and diffidence of the new curative; agency, because it would be obviously rash and premature to generalise from the limited data at present available. On one point, however, Dr .Crivelli is perfectly clear, and that ie the'paramount importance of subjecting the glands of any other animali as of rabbits, for example, that may be substituted for those of guinea pigs in experiments of this kind to a rigid microscopical (examination, in order that both operator and patibnt 'may be assured that they are perfectly free from the germs of tuberculous or of other communicable maladies.