SPAHLINGER’S CLAIM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19722, 13 December 1926, Page 10

SPAHLINGER’S CLAIM

TUBERCULOSIS IMMUNITY VACCINE SUCCESS NOT NEW. EXAGGERATED CABLE REPORT The cabled. cTaim that the investigator, Spahliriger, has irtadie a radical advance by discovering an immunising serum for trtbercrX ; osis, is discountenanced by Wanganui medical men, one of whom told a “Chronicle” reporter that cattle had been imfounised agfiinst tuberculosis as far back as thirty years ago. He regretted that the report cabled on Thursday from Geneva was so exultant in its tone, as such misleading ■ messages only buoyed sufferers with false hopes. The ultimate disillusion- | ment was worse than the prospects justified. Quoting medical text books, one of. which (Bosanquet and Eyre, 1916) he produced, the doctor showed how authentic instances of the inoculation of cattle against tuberculoses had been recorded in 1894 and 1897 by different investigators, among whom were Truidcau, de Schweinitz, and Behring. He stated that Spahlinger’s latest muchheralded achievement was no more advanced than these thirty-year-old developments. Futile Trips Abroad. “It is a fact,” he continued, “that animals, and even men, can be innoculated against tuberculosis, but people will not submit to inoculation. It was the same during the war. Until they were compelled, the soldiers would not be vaccinated against typhoid and other diseases, even though they wore going to zones where such maladies were rampant.” What was to be deplored was the fact that Spahlinger’s announcements caused many in New Zealand to go off to Switzerland on quests that, could not possibly result in anything but disappointment. He knew of cases where the relatives of sufferers would make any sacrifice to help in gaining a cure, but up to the present neither Spahlingcr nor anyone else had been able io promise certain relief, though here in New Zealand the use of tuberculin had achieved many complete cures where the disease was caught in a sufficiently early stage. Referring further to tuberculin, he said it allowed definite and conclusive tests of the conditions of animals to bo made, and he advocated that all dairy cattle should be so tested. In view of tho fact that infected milk caused at least 90 per cent, of T.B. cases, he thought this measure one of extreme importance. As to the cure of the disease, any treatment satisfying the investigation of the British Medical Research Association would at once be made available for the world. But in the meantime exaggerated reports, conducive to misplaced optimism, were to be deprecated.