Abstract
IN a paper published in Medizinische Welt of August 25, Dr. W. von Brehmer claims to have obtained in pure culture an organism, present in the blood of cancerous patients and of animals bearing tumours. The organism could also be obtained from human and animal tumours. It is a pleomorphic aerobe which in pure culture appears in the form of tubules 0-5 (x-2-8 (JL long and 0-2 (jt-0-8 y. broad, and can be stained by a Giemsa stain., The tubules are filled with spores, which when liberated, are stated to be able to enter damaged cells and thus cause cancer. An essential condition for obtaining cultures of this organism, to which the name Syphonospora polymorpha has been given, is an alkaline condition, of the medium, with a pH of 7-5-7-6, and von Brehmer maintains that cancer is always associated with a shift of the hydrogen ion concentration of the blood toward the alkaline side. The organism is stated to exist in the blood of apparently normal healthy people in the form of small spores which are non-pathogenic, but become pathogenic with the shift of the hydrogen ion concentration. Dr. von Brehmer also claims to have produced tumours in animals by the injection of pure cultures of his organism, but no detailed evidence is given.
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Causation of Cancer. Nature 134, 411 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134411a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134411a0