The San Francisco call., 1899-04-16


PARIS, April 15.-Some sensation has
been caused of late by the discovery of
Dr. Bra, and the press announcement
that cancer microbe has been found and
isolated. The Herald has made a com
plete inquiry as far as possible into the
matter in order to thoroughly ascertain
the real value of the discovery and what
might be expected of it.
DR. Bra was said to have isolated from can
cerous tumors various kinds of fungold be
longing to the ascomycetes family. rms para
Site Was not only extracted from cancerous
tumors but was also cultivated by mixing with
the blood of cancerous subjects The blood Is
safd ~ be fertile. only in later periods of the
maIady when subjects have taken the pale
yellow color characteristic of cancer.
This parasite is found in Two forms. IN n
spherlles and cylindric cells The spherues
OF pale light green color are round and consist
of protoplasmic mass, and OUTSIDE the en-
yeloping membrane. They give rise 10 Hilnute
sDores in endogenous fashion. AS 10 cylindrlc
cells of conisia. they are refractive ana are
iytbo1lsandths of a millimetre long by Two
thoneandths of a millimetre broad, and these
coils when they accumulate, can give rise 10
absolute 'mycelium." This parasite Is probic
and can be cultivated at normal temperature
and succeeds best at 35 degrees centigrade. Inc
spores however. will resist temperature at
boiling point for over an hour. Neither wafer a,,
nor desiccation alters its regetaolllty 10 any
The culture can be made in beef tea or
sterilized milk or solid matters, a jar of serum
e,sIattne or potatoes There are certain cultures
which as they grow older assume hne PINK
color. ,., t .,,-,ore
Dr Bra found parasites in large quantities in
cells in the center in cellular intervals. de
cornnares them to parasites which SCUBA, her-
Ivicb Barier, Wiz Szobracing. Ruffer and 9TH
ers have already discovered to be characteristic
of cancer. -,
ments on animals by means of his cultures pro
duced acute and chronic infections Ihese TOOK
the form of tumors which varied automatically
from those which consisted of simple infiam-
matory reaction to fbrosarcoma and real can
Ger. =, ,-l. 4.
about certain diseases of skin, ULCERS in the
stomach, Inflammation of the tongue and cirr-
hosts and hypertrophy of the liver, especially
in the case of rabbits and dogs
Such are the results which up TO the present
DIR Bra has achieved Can they be accepted?
This is not the opinion Of Professor Curtis
of Lille, who, making use of severe operating
technique, only obtained negative results IN IN
the three following conditions, and his opera
tions seem to have been excellently carried out:
/ He only employed for his inoculations
absolutely fresh cancerous matter; as soon as
cancerous tumor was extirDated by the sur
geon he carried out his inoculations with IT.
Q He only used non-ulcerated tumors, and
these were not infected artificially. AS all
ulcerate cancers of digestive or genital organs
microbes of all kinds and by ordinary fungoids
Professor Curtis only used cancers of the
8 He also confined himself to operating
quickly and antiseptically.
In working under these severe conditions all
inoculations OF dogs, rabbits guinea pigs. rats
and mice by cultures, either solids or fluids.
remained negative.
The following are the conclusions which Pro-
fessor Curtis drew from his experiments:
"On the whole I of the opinion that can
Ger from a human subject-by this 1 mean
epithelan-ean neither be inocuated in ami
mails usually employed in our laboratories nor
cultivated in the usual fashion. The micro
organism of cancer If there is micro-organsm,
has up to the present time eVaded all re-
search. astrological, experimental or bacterio-
logical.
Il refuse to accept all observations of culture
and inoculation of cancer which have been
succeeded l reply, place yourself in the condi-
ton | have Just laid, which a tudtcious eX
perimental critic would insist on, and you will
fail as | have DONE
We have thus placed before the readers of
the Herald the whole case. We must, there
fore await the result of experiments to
settle the dispute between observers who hold
such different orinions.
There still however, remains an important
point Admitting that DR. Bras Investigations
have been exact. is 1t possible to draw from
them any conclusions in regard to treatment?
To settle this question we addressed ourselves
, To DR.. Bra, who replied by letter, from which
we extract tie following passage:
LAS to treatment, | am much less advanced.
The whole matter is confined to certain elm
.cal and experimental facts, resulting from
cancer Though the results are very favorable.
l win only be able TO speak of them in some
months time
sIean from the foregoing statement by DR..
Bra that he is seeking to treat cancer by in
oculating with soluble products-that is to
say a soluble fermentation engendered by a
cultura of the parasite fungoids of ascomycetes.
these latter being cultivated in favorable
THIS method of injecting soluble products
fabricated by the parasite, TO yaccinate with