The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-05-26
NEW TREATMENT FOR CURE or
CONSUMPTION.
A System Devised by q French Lay
man-Antseptic Medicines Play an
Important Part-Details Of cure.

Much has been said about an expert
mcnt In the treatment OF ConsumptiVes
now being tried in St Luke's Hospital
New York. The system used is one de-
Vised by Francis Crotte, a Frenchman
who is not a physician, but who has
devoted much time to the study of med
icine and chemistry. Crotte's plan is to
introduce antiseptic medicines into dis
eased tissue by means of static cleo
tricity, sponge electrode being saturat-
ed with the medicine. The use of cleo
tricity in this manner is not new, but
Mr.. Crotte seems to have made adj
vances i'm the practical application, par
ticularly to consumption.
Professor Crotte says his treatment
will cure every case of consumption in
the first stages, 75 per cent in the sec
ond stage, 30 per cent in the third, or
so-called hopeless" stage. Professor
Crotte has been conducting a clinic in
Paris for the past five ears, and it Is
matter of record that he has cured
consumptives in about all the percent
ages mentioned. His discovery of a sys-
TEN by means of which formaldehyde
gas can actually be forced into the lung
cells by means of electricity is the re-
suit of many years experiment.
As a measure Of precaution Professor
Crotte used static or natural electricity,
rather than dynamic, because of the
danger to the patient from the use Of
the latter current. There is nothing Sc
cret about the operation. Professor
Crotte devised electrical machines for
administering the currents properly
sponges saturated with formaldehyde
being applied to the patients back or
chest, and attached to the poles of the
apparatu
In applying the treatment the patient
is stripped to the waist, and, after being
placed on a couch or operating table, is
carried near the machine. Then a
sponge filled with formaldehyde is at
tached to one pole of the electric ma
chine and placed on the sufferers body.
In some cases another sponge, similarly
charged with the gas, is held close to
the mouth of the patient and connected
with the battery. and the gas is in
hailed in deep inspirations, while in
some cases the second sponge is placed
against the patients chest
Then the electric machine is started
and the static electricity flows in a
steady current through the sponges and
into the body of the patient, carrying
the formalehyde with it and destroying
all germs with which the gas comes in
contact. One of the experiments in con-
nection with the treatment consists in
an examination of the matter eXpector-
ated by the patient just before the cur
rent is applied. Inc germs are IOuHu
by the thousand, alive and moving. Inn
mediately after the operation another
examination is made. Usually all the
germs discovered are dead.
Day after day this process is repeated,
the lungs gradually healing as the
germs are killed, and the searching gas
goes deeper and deeper into the cells,
searching out all the cavities containing
the bacilli, until at last all have been
killed by the deadly formaldehyde, The
patient is then cured.
The machine used by Professor Crotte
to obtain the powerful force he uses is
of his own invention. The machine is
composed of eight cylinders of ebonite,
of great surface. placed one within the
other, but turning in opposite directions.
The machine is operated by one-horse
power motor The full details of his
machine are at present guarded by Pro-
lessor Crotte,, as his patent protection
in this country is not yet perfect, but
he claims for it the power of producing
a voltage considerably over the million
mark, while at the same time the am
peraCe is very low The static flow is
very long and powerful.