CURE OF CONSUMPTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3279, 26 July 1911, Page 8

CURE OF CONSUMPTION.

ANOTHER NEW TREATMENT.

REMARKABLE RESULTS

CLAIMED

A feature is being made by some medical men in England of attacking the diseased lungs of consumptive people by means of what is called the open method of administering ether, and other drugs through the medium of ether. Remarkable cures are claimed. Sir Philip Sydney Jones said in Sydney that, although some wonderful ciues had been reported, there was as vet, of course, no guarantee that its effects were permanent. The open method of administering ether simply is that the patient- is given the anesthetic without 'breathing a second time the same air and ether. It is held by those who are practising the svstem that patients anesthetised by the present closed., or partially closed, methods are poisoned more or less by tlieir own breath in the rebreathing. Some notes on the new method by R. H. Hodgson, M.D., appear in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (1909). Dr. Hodgson states atliat ether given in the manner indicated seems to him to be free from danger, no matter what the patient’s condition, and, furthermore, enables the medical man to give by inhalation, through the medium, of ether, a number of drugs which he names, ordinarily most- deadly for inhalation purposes. The doctor proceeds to say, amongst other things : —“Pulmonary tuberculosis may be directly attacked 1 by almost any drugs in the very seat of its origin. And it- is therefore only reasonable to conclude that, with the help of the anesthetist, pulmonary tuberculosis may be arrested and destroyed with great certainty. Although I have so far limited the value of inhalation to the cure of tubercle of the lungs, I do not mean that the treatment is useless in tubercle of other parts of the body, but tlia the lungs afford the most convenient evidence of its benefits. I have adminisered ether alone, or with other drugs, in extreme cases of pulmonary phthisis, with cavity and without-, in general tuberculosis, in tubercle of the lung and kidney, in tubercular pleurisy, and in advanced organic heart disease, with dilatation and impending death. In all cases rapid improvement has followed, and no danger has been apparent. Consumptives -taking ether this ivay show rapid -alleviation of their symptoms, the expectoration is reduced in number and severity, the appetite marvellously improved, the desire for and assimilation of fatty foods correspondingly increased, and tile area of dulness perceptibly diminished.” In the procedings of the Royal Society of Medicine of July, 1910, appear further notes bv Dr. Hodgson giving a record of remarkable cures.

One case noted is that of a married man, aged 36, who came under treatment in February, ISOB. He had a constant cough, and profuse expectoration, and his night sweats were so. bad that it was necessary to wake him up

six times -in the night for a change of garments. His appetite was extremely had, and the sight of food made him feel sick. He had hectic flushes, and his fingers were clubbed in the way peculiar to consumptives. Moreover, he was extremely weak, and could, scarcely walk a few paces without resting.

Dr. Hodgson’s notes on th© case include the following observations:- —“On February 22 he was, for the first time, put under ether for 20 minutes. The same night lie had only three sweats and very little cough. On February 23 he enjoyed his breakfast. On February 24 he was put under ether for 30 minutes, and that night had but one slight sweat. His expectoration was considerably reduced. On the night of February 25 he did not sweat, and felt better than he had for months. The next day h© was put under ether for 33 minutes, followed by only on© slight sweat. He was put on a diet of boiled pork, of which he ate heartily, three pints of milk, seven eggs, vegetables, and bread and butter.” The doctor goes on to relate that on March 6 the patient’s cough had practically ceased, and that subsequently the clubbing of the fingers completely disappeared, and th© patient walked 12 miles a day with comfort. “So rapid was the alteration of th© fingers under the inhalations,” says the doctor, “that I could almost daily see the lateral bulging disappearing, and the roots of the nails, which stood far above the level of th© fingers and contributed largely to the curving of the nails, soon sank to their normal position. The fact that the man has not altered for the worse, but rather for the better, during the last two years points, I consider, to the conclusion | that he has been rendered immune agains the advance of consumption.”