Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-11-06
DR.. FR|EDMANN'S CURE
IS SUBJECT OF REPORT
Alleged Remedy for tuberculosis
Analysed by the Public
Health Service.

The cure" for tuberculosis which
aroused such sensation in this coun-
try when DR.. F. F. Friedmann, the Ber-
lin physician, came here in the spring
of 1913 has just been made the subject
of report by the United States public
health service.
This remedy was so widely heralded
that every victim of tuberculosis ex-
perienced q thrill of hope of speedy
and complete cure. The report natur
ally does not deal with the details of
the scenes ensuing upon DIR. Fried
manns advent, of the crowds of inva-
lids, many of them penniless. battling
for chance to take the treatment; of
the greedy exploitation of hopeless
cases who happened to have money.
and the turning away of those who did
not. The report details merely with
the medical observations made on GER
tain patients. the laboratory studies
on the culture used by DIR. friedman.
and refers to the moral peculiaritieS of
the doctor only sufficiently to make it
clear that 1t was his own fault that the
investigation was not continued longer
and upon a greater number of suitable
cases.
Presentation of Claim Discussed.
1t is pointed out that the manner in
which. DR.. friedman presented his
claims before the Berlin Medical So
ciety made them paramount to a con-
tention that he had discovered at last
the sovereign cure for tuberculosis in
all its forms. provided, of course, that
the disease had not already progressed
beyond all hope of recovery. These
claims the report takes up in detail and
then draws the deadly parallel be-
tween them and the results of the APP
pHcation of the treatment to patients
under the observation of the service
doctors. Whereas the claims are based
on cases which always seem to get
well, or at least to show phenomenal
improvement after one or two fnjec-
lions, the cases which reacted in this
manner among the test series were con-
sptcuously few. The report does not
commit itself as to whether the i'm
provement noted in these few cases was
due to the treatment or to the stimulus
of a great hope, or to unassignable
causes which work improvement in
some cases of every large series: but it
does point out distinctly that If any one
prefers the first explanation he must in
Justice attribute also to the treatment
the very distinct and unusual deterior-
alton In the condition of certain other
patients, which progressed in some of
them to speedy death.
Some of the Results.
Aside from these more serious cases
1t was shown that about e-fourth of
all the cases receiving the treatment
developed running sores or Assesses
at the place where they were injected.
a happening which DIR. friedman had
admitted to be unfavorable to cure.
but which he claimed to have COM
pletely overcome by his method of in
jecting the material into tho VEINS
long series of experiments with the
bacteria used by Friedman is report
ed. which show that the germ Is diff
ferent from the varieties of tubercle
bacilli commonly known at the pres
ent time. and that far from making
small animals more resistant to tuber-
cular infection. 1t made the majority Of
those inoculated more susceptible The
report is therefore in line with other
reports coming from scientific sources
here and abroad, which have refuted
DR.. Friedmanns claims to the discov-
cry of a specific cure for tuberculosis