EDITOR'S TABLE. 



841 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



KOCH'S CONSUMPTIOK-CURE. 



THE very great importance of the 

 subject of the cure of consump- 

 tion, the enormous extent of the mal- 

 ady and its great fatality, would natu- 

 rally be the means of attracting univers- 

 al attention to any remedy which was 

 supposed to possess curative powers 

 over it. To one who is familiar with 

 the writings of Koch on this subject it 

 need not be said that he is not properly 

 to be held responsible for the exagger- 

 ated ideas which have been received of 

 the efficacy of the new agent ; nor, in- 

 deed, are any of the numerous scientific 

 men who have carefully observed its ef- 

 fects in different countries. But many 

 visionary persons in the medical pro- 

 fession, and many not in it, became im- 

 bued early with the impression that 

 there had at last been found a means of 

 working miracles. Moreover, a few de- 

 signing and unscrupulous doctors inten- 

 tionally aided, to a slight extent, in the 

 propagation of this idea; but probably 

 the most generally operative cause of 

 the exaggerated notions that have ob- 

 tained with regard to the potency of the 

 new remedy lies in the popular inclina- 

 tion toward a belief in the supernatural. 

 People who wish to be deceived often 

 begin by unintentionally endeavoring to 

 deceive themselves. 



That the public should derive an 

 idea of the potency for good of this 

 remedy far beyond what Koch has ever 

 claimed for it, or what any experience 

 with it would warrant, is not surpris- 

 ing such has often been the case be- 

 fore with new and relatively untried 

 remedies. Not only the public, but the 

 doctors, are often deceived by the her- 

 alding of new cures. It is but a few 

 years since the benzoate of soda was 

 published by reputable physicians in 

 high places in Austria as a means of 

 curing consumption. Medical literature 

 teemed with accounts of its powers for 



a few months, and then it sank rapidly 

 into oblivion. A few years later there 

 came to us from the Riviera most start- 

 ling accounts of cures of consumption 

 and various other pulmonary diseases 

 by means of the introduction into the 

 blood of sulphureted hydrogen dissolved 

 in carbonic acid. These accounts were 

 most circumstantial, and the truth of 

 them was vouched for by several men 

 of good standing in the medical profes- 

 sion. So brilliant were the results 

 claimed that the method of treatment 

 soon became common. Many doctors 

 tried it in many cities, and after a fluctu- 

 ating existence of a few months the 

 Bergeon treatment, as it was called, 

 quietly died and was decently interred 

 among many other therapeutic proced- 

 ures that had once had their day. Some 

 years ago the world was startled by the 

 assertion that in South America a cure for 

 cancer had been found in the bark of a 

 climbing plant called condurango. The 

 sensation created by this announcement 

 is remembered by many doctors who are 

 still young. It was tried in that year 

 here and in various European capitals, 

 and was discarded as inert and useless. 

 Condurango was then supposed to be 

 dead as a therapeutic agent beyond all 

 possibility of revival, when suddenly the 

 serenity of the medical world was again 

 rudely shocked by a publication which 

 emanated from the Professor of Medi- 

 cine in the University of Heidelberg, 

 two years later, in which he reported 

 the cure of a cancer of the stomach by 

 the use of this drug. Since then evi- 

 dence has accumulated to show that 

 condurango does seem to possess a cura- 

 tive power in some forms of cancer 

 of the stomach ; but it is known to 

 be inert as regards cancer elsewhere. 

 It would be easy to adduce evidence in 

 favor of the importance of receiving 

 encomiums upon new and marvelous 

 cures with the utmost caution. 



