The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-18
Senate DENIES
DOCTOR permit
Hughes Resolution to Allow
friedman to Practice
Here Meets Snag.
HOSPITAL is SILENT
New York Physician Makes Statement
in Which Little Credit Is
Given "Cure."

Although the public health service
maintains its silence in the matter of the
Friedman cure" and the authorities
of the George Washington Hospital re-
port that they have not seen any Of the
patients who received treatment from
the German scientist in Washington,
and will not be able to make any report
until the patients return for examina-
ton, the turtle serum OF Friedman is
still causing general discussion among
physicians.
The attempt of Senator Hughes yester-
day to introduce a resolution permitting
DR.. Friedman to practice in the Dis
trict was held up by objections from sew
eral of the members of the Senate. One
of the most outspoken against the reso-
luton was Senator Gallnger, who him.
self is a physician. Senator Hughes
also wished to have letter relating
to the cure read, but objection to this
was also raised. The resolution was re-
ferred to the District Committee.
Concerning the cures DIR. friedman
asserts he has made a member of the
New York department of health and an
authority on tuberculosis, said yester-
day:
II presume there is no disease in which
the psychic element so largely enters.
like the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes.
where cripples go, and then leave their
crutches behind them IS a matter of
fact, * can be conservatively stated that
the majority of the cripples are not per-
manently cured-it was the temporary
excitement and the small percentage
that we're cured were purely psychic,
anyway. Take tuberculosis of the joints
Surely you cannot eliminate that ele-
& ,Ix aN-c
there. and it is perfectly possible, and in
fact very probable. that in a large num-
Der of cases the effect would have been
the same if DIR. Friedman, the celebrat-
ed Berlin physician, had injected water.
No Defuite improvements.
LAS a matter OF fact. / am informed
from a creditable source that not one
of the cases treated so far shows def
mite sign of improvement on which IA
vorable opinion can be based. This in
cludes all forms In pulmonary cases
] think it can be safely stated that some
of them have progressed more rapidly
since the injections than before.
But. after all. il seems TO me that
the thing which should make us all
hesitate is that Friedman comes to US
any says: i took Virulent tuberculosis ba-
cilli: | made them grow: then | starved
them 10 death-put them through all
sorts of hardships (attenuation), and,
finally. after SO treating them. obtained
a strain of bacilh which retained all
their anti-toXic properties-all the prop
critics which We know tire bacillus pos
sesses, 10 help destroy itself and its
effects-but which are entirely free from
all traces of virulence' Even accepting
this as the truth-it is perfectly true
that YOU can take almost any one of
our bacteria and can alternate them
so that their virulence is tremendously
decreased, but just as soon as you treat
them properly, or inject them into their
natural host. or put them in warm It's
sue their virulence comes back in one
generation
The burden of proof is on Friedman.
When asked about his claims, he said:
There are. ] do not know how many
hundred children which | injected some
six, eight or nine months ago, who show
no trace of tuberculosis. 1t may be that
traces of tuberculosis might not develop
in a number of years. The bacilli might
lie dormant for long time, but i think
il is far from being proven a safe pro-
cedure, and all this is borne out by the
fact that in each case the hospitals have
gotten a statement of assent and re-
lease from the patient"