Salt Lake Telegram | 1905-04-07 | Page 8 | New Treatment Tried for Spinal Meningitis

NEW TREATMENT TRIED FOR SPINAL MENINGITIS . . . . i ' . NEW YORK, April" 7. Seventeen deaths from cerebro-slnal meningitis were reported " during Thursday in Greater New York,' making a total for the week thus far of eighty-two. An t average of twenty-five developing cases J have been reported dallyi I have any salutary effect upon the disease. dis-ease. ' - - I "It is interesting to note that the meningococci of the bacilli of spinal meningitis are so similar to the germs of another disease that it la difficult to tell them apart. The meningococci have the appearance .a coffee bean would have if it were split in the middle and A new treatment is being tried at Bellevue hospital. It consists Of drawing draw-ing off the fluid from the spinal canal. This being done, it greatly relieves the patient. By the use of ice bags, the patients pa-tients are then kept in good condition and with little pain. "The only Question la," said one of the staff at the hospital, "whether We are getting all the discharge from the canal. We are not able to tell, because ther is no X-ray strong enough to determine de-termine whether the fluid is clogged in 'the brain. It is believed that in the advanced ad-vanced cases it does clog up. "This treatment reduces the temperature temper-ature almost to normal, thus affording us an excellent opportunity for working. work-ing. We have found no drugs which opened out so that the two hemispheres wbuld form a circle. We have found nothing yet with which to kill the germ." . At Bellevue la a six-year-old lad, taker there three weeks ago. An eminent emi-nent surgeon who is studying the disease dis-ease trephined the boy's skull and drew off the fluid which caused the trouble. The patlenr is still living and shows Improvement. In their investigation of the causes of the epidemic members of the commission commis-sion appointed by the Board of Health have turned their attention to animals. The close analogy of the oftenMncur-able oftenMncur-able distemper peculiar to dogs has suggested a new field of Inquiry. Stray cats and dogs are now under suspicion.