Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-04-09
Thought Incurable Before.


fights the paretic microbe with
such deadly effect that it apparently
is killed.
Thought Incurable Before.
mo treatment Of paresiS. up to this
time, has been successful" Or. White
said. when asked for an explanation
of the so-called cure In fact
cures of that infection have been 50
rare to make my statement vir-
tually correct. All efforts at Il cure
seemed doomed to failure at the out
set because Of certain inherent de-
fcctS.
First. syphilis. which causes pa
resis. destroys the nervous tissues
Therefore. unless II is treated very
early. II does permanent da1nag e
that cannot be repaired. Second. the
micro-organism remains inaccessible
TO any drug injected into the blood
or the body because it gets so far
back into the tissues that the drug
cannot follow
Everything that enters the blood
stream must pass through a filter.
known to physicians at the choroid
plexus. In all drugs used the mole
cules are so large that they will not
go through this bodily filter. And
all medicines used to cure syphilis
up to the present time are metallic
poiSonS - mercury, arseaic and, .iik e
poisons. Thus, we have never been
able to reach those germs that got
beyond this filter, and paresis re-
suited.
The use of tertian malaria mi
crobes attacks the disease. however
from a different angle. Instead OF
Introducing poison into the system
something else Whenever a disease
agency is introduced into the body
the body develops Immediately anti
toxins to fight il and drive ii out
ease, If our bodies are strong and
healthy.
German Experiments.
well, then, it was noticed by old
psychiatrists that not infrequently
persons who were insane and suffered
acute attacks of infection got well.
They thought this might be applied
to paresis. Prof. Wagner Won Jau-
regg OF Vienna first started the eX-
pertinent, | believe. He was tenn
porarily stopped by the war. but re-
sumed his work Immediately after
hostilities ended. Then it was taken
up by Prof. Weygandt of Hamburg.
1T was observed during the war
that malaria patients who developed
paresis did not suffer nearly SO bad
an attack as those who did not have
malaria. Tests were made and the
theory developed that tert:an ma
laria microbes develop anti-bodies in
the human system which are deadly
to the germ causing paresi5. 1t sim
ply carries out one Of the commonest
of bodily phenome decentralization In
the latter we inject into the blood
not smallpox germs, but cowpox mi
crobes, which cause the development
of anti-bodies deadly to smallpox.
To Build Up Defensive.
while malaria is not the same
thing as syphilis. which we must re-
member causes paresis, 1t is more
closely allied to it than most infec-
tious diseases. Most diseases are due
TO micro-organisms which are vegeta-
BILE in character. Some are animal
however. and both malaria and syph-
ills are the latter. Our theory. here
fore, is simply to build up q defen-
sive against paresis, which is practi-
cally harmless and can be controlled
at any time. We are using tertian
malaria because 1t is the most benign
form of that disease. 1t apparently
are not bothered about getting 1t
through the blood stream filter which
passes its microorganisms.
Results of the treatment in both
Hamburg and Vienna have been very
favorable. Patients suffering from
periods when the symptoms are prac-
tically gone With patients who have
reached the malaria treatment, these
remissions are about three times as
numerous. And half of them have
RENTED for such long periods-sev-
eral years-that they have been call
ed cured. We can not yet be sure,
however, for blood tests show that
they still have syphilis. More time
must elapse before the cure can be
n of
THE greatest trouble experienced
now" Dr. White said, SIS to obtain
persons suffering from tertian ma
laria."
Only a cubic centimeter-two-fft
of a teaspoonful-of blood are needed
from each malaria patient. Those
who are suffering from malaria are
quite willing to sacrifice such a small
quantity Of blood, but tertian ma
laria is not the commonest form of
that disease. In the past several
weeks, however. fifteen patients with
paresis have been injected at st.
Elizabeth's Hospital.
DIR. White particularly warned
against the malaria treatment being
accepted as chre yet. Time alone.
he said, would tell the whole story.
and the public must be content to 90
slowly for a short time. When medt-
cal science is sure Of the cure II will