“Capell’s Uroluetic Test” would be “important if true.” Unfortunately, its scientific value to the sufferer is negligible compared with its economic value to the exploiter. It is not so much a test for lues in the patient as of credulity in the doctor.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Aug. 23, 1919.)
Another Urinary Test for Syphilis
To the Editor:—Will you kindly inform me whether the test in the enclosed “literature” is what it is represented to be?
Charles M. Thomas, M.D., Sunbury, Pa.
Answer.—The “literature” referred to by Dr. Thomas dealt with the “Uri-Na Test” sold by the Standard Appliance Company of Philadelphia. There seems to be a strong family resemblance between this alleged test and that known as “Capell’s Uroluetic Test,” which was discussed in the Propaganda Department of The Journal, Aug. 23, 1919. Of that The Journal said: “Unfortunately, its scientific value to the sufferer is negligible compared with its economic value to the exploiter. It is not so much a test for lues in the patient as of credulity in the doctor.” The same may be said of the “Uri-Na Test.” The facts are, there is no method at present known by which the absence or presence of syphilis may be determined by a simple color test of the urine.—(Query in The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 22, 1919.)
CHEMOTHERAPY AND TUMORS [Q][R]
Richard Weil, M.D., New York
Within the last three years a number of reports have appeared in the medical press which bear on the treatment of malignant growths in human beings by chemical preparations. The most persuasive and the most insistent claims have been made in connection with the colloidal solutions of certain metalloids and metals, notably selenium, vanadium and copper. At the same time a number of drug houses, both in this country and abroad, have placed on the market proprietary preparations of these substances in various forms, for which the claim is made that they produce striking therapeutic effects and sometimes even cures in malignant neoplasms.