The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-09-15

NowS Of . Discovery Under Discus
sion By Physicians In Greenwood
An Alkaline Treatment.

| clans are much interested In a new
treatment of typhoid fever which
may be one Of greatest Importance.
A paper on the subject was read be-
fore the county medical society Mon
day by the discoverer Of the treat
ment. DR.. W. L. Lander and the mat
ter was freely discussed. The usual
procedure In such matters is, of
course. to have all publication first
made in the regular journals Of the
profession and then they can be pub
lished by the lay papers This treat
ment Is being freely discussed, how
ever. and 1t will not be amiss to tell
something about 1t as the paper read
by DR.. Lander will not be published
for month yet in the State Medical
Journal. DR.. Lander was for a num-
ber of years professor in mis- faith
er's college. Williamson Female col
lege. now Lander college. Three
years ago he entered the Charleston
Medical College in Charleston and
has one more year before his gradu-
alton. He IL man Of mature judg-
ment and has always taken great in
terest in the work of the county
medical society and 1t was at the re-
quest Of the society that he prepared
the paper on typhoid above referred
to.
49, An Alkaline Treatment.
DR.. Lander does considerable
amount Of work in the chemical lab
oratory at Lander college. making
tests of blood, etc.. and is frequently
called on to make tests for physi-
clans. In this work he had to have
fresh cultures. as in the case Of typh-
old bacteria they do not work 30 we'll
II over two days old. Some time ago
he was making up q new medium
In which to place new growth Of
typhoid bacteria and while engaged
In the work was. interrupted. He
states that In such cases one 10 not
always accurate because Of the in
terruption and such was the case with
him then. There is a regular for
mula for this medium in which to
grow the germs 1t is really a sort of
weak beef broth. but has to be made
according to formula. He discov-
cred after little while that the
cultures in the test now with the
supposedly correct medium were not
doing so we'll. not growing as they
should. The idea then ocurred to
him that IL a similar condition should
be brought or could be brought about
in the human system. great progress
would be made in the fight against
typhoid fever. He began to inves-
tigate to find out what was the mat
ter with his medium
Checks Growth of Germs.
The result of his Investigations
were that the typhoid germs will not
grow in a medium more alkaline
than the prescribed one. Too much
acid does not seem to affect the
growth. but an alkaline preponder-
ance does affect the growth, it re-
tards it. This then in brief is the
basis of the discovery as it can be
told by a layman to laymen. The
idea is to develop an alkaline con-
dition in the system of a typhoid fe-
YER patient so that nature can be
aided or backed up in her fight to
choke down the typhoid fever germ
AS is we'll known as soon as a pa
tient develops typhoid fever or any
other germ Ciseaee nature at once
gets busy and starts the manufacture
Of poison in the system to fight this
particular germ. If nature can get
Oreeches hold the germ is doomed, If
not the patient dies. This new treat
ment Is simply an effort to find
something that will help nature with
it's weapons of defense. Of course,
such treatment must be in the hands
of a physician and must be admins
tered as the individual case indicates.
Some man has written to DR.. Lander
telling him he has five cases of
| typhoid fever and wants to get the
treatment" To him as all others
DR.. Lander writes that he must con-
suit his physician and if the physi-
| clan cares to write to him he will
be glad to tell him the results Of the
tests made here. AS said above, the
matter is being freely discussed by
satisfactory results have been had in
such tests as have been made. In
other towns around. too, the physi-