3TC 



MEDICINE, ADVANCES IN. 



bald. It has been prepared and published under 

 the direction of the British Institution, and is 

 the most comprehensive work on mosquitoes yet 

 issued. In it are described 300 species, 136 of 

 which are new. 



Consumption. At the first International Con- 

 ference, held in Berlin from Oct. 22 to 26, 1902, a 

 number of interesting papers were read, but noth- 

 ing new of great importance was announced. 

 Prof. Friinkel, in the opening address, said: 



" There are some points in the etiology of tu- 

 berculosis which are still unknown, but nobody 

 nowadays doubts that the bacillus tuberculosis 

 is the essential cause of the disease, and that the 

 destruction of all the bacilli would mean the ex- 

 tinction of tuberculosis. ... To cure a patient 

 suffering from consumption is a preventive meas- 

 u if. because every patient with active tubercu- 

 lous is a danger to the healthy persons with 

 wliom he lives. ... It should [now that sana- 

 toriums are numerous] be the aim of the na- 

 tional societies to popularize the prevention of 

 tuberculosis by the education of public opinion." 



One of the most interesting and instructive fea- 

 tures of the congress was the reading of the dele- 

 gates' reports. 



Prof. Brouardel stated that France now had 

 2S sanatoria, of which only 2 were for paying 

 patients. A collective investigation was also 

 under way, with official support. 



Dr. Linroth, the Swedish delegate, stated that 

 the first sanatorium in Sweden \vas opened in 

 11)00 with 100 beds. Since that time two others 

 had been established, the total number of beds 

 now available being 500. 



Prof. Schrotter, of Vienna, described but one 

 institution, at Alland, near Vienna, which had 

 130 beds. 



Dr. Egger, of Basle, reported 7 sanatoria in 

 Switzerland, with 416 beds, at which 1,041 pa- 

 tients were received during 1901. 



Another one was now in course of erection. 

 These were apparently all free and public insti- 

 tutions, as 12 more private sanatoria were de- 

 scribed by him. 



Dr. Rordam, of Copenhagen, reported 5 sana- 

 toria for children and 3 for adults in Norway, 

 besides a number now in course of erection. A 

 national association distributes pamphlets show- 

 ing how to avoid consumption and how to treat 

 it, and has also instituted a course of public lec- 

 tures for the same purpose. 



Dr. G. A. Heron said there were about 1,000 

 beds available for non-paying patients in Eng- 

 land, and about 2,250 for pay patients. 



Dr. A. Hillier, of London, a member of the 

 British National Association for the Prevention 

 of Tuberculosis, presented an encouraging report 

 regarding the work of his association, which has 

 25 branches in England and her colonies. 



Reports were also presented from Belgium, 

 Hungary, Roumania, and Russia. 



Compulsory notification of consumption was in 

 general favor among the delegates, but was 

 discussed at a private session. 



According to Folk's Medical Directory for 1902, 

 there are in New York city 3 hospitals devoted 

 to consumptives, with a total of 468 beds, 2 of 

 them being private institutions; to these may 

 be added the tuberculosis hospital of the Depart- 

 ment of Charities on Blackwells Island, with a 

 capacity of 300. In the State of New York there 

 are 2 sanatoria recorded, with a combined capaci- 

 ty of 168, both of them pay institutions. 



Host on is credited with 2 hospitals and 70 

 beds, but there is no sanatorium given in the 

 entire State of Massachusetts. 



Philadelphia is given 3 consumption hospitals 

 with 153 beds, and Pennsylvania 1 sanatorium 

 containing 33 beds. 



There are apparently no special consumption 

 hospitals in Chicago, and no sanatoria in Illi- 

 nois. 



Bovine and Human Tuberculosis. An investi- 

 gation under the direction of Lord Lister has re- 

 cently been carried out at the Jenner Institute 

 of Preventive Medicine, in London. 



The tubercle bacillus was first passed through 

 pigs, cats, rabbits, and rats, and its effect then 

 tested on calves. 



The most important results, as they bear on 

 Dr. Koch's pronunciamento of last year, occurred 

 in the case of the pigs subcutaneously inoculated 

 with human tuberculous sputum. In 7 of the 8 

 pigs thus treated the post-mortem examination 

 showed marked tuberculous lesions and disease 

 of the lungs. 



In 3 other pigs fed with tuberculous spu- 

 tum local lesions were found, chiefly cervical 

 and tonsillar. Hence the pig, at any rate, is capa- 

 ble of contracting a rapidly fatal general tuber- 

 culosis as a result of inoculation with tubercle 

 bacilli of human origin. " The human tubercle 

 bacillus is not markedly exalted in virulence for 

 the calf by a single passage through the pig, cat, 

 rabbit, or rat. At the same time the experiments 

 show that the human tubercle bacillus is by 

 no means innocuous to the calf, as the control 

 animal infected directly with sputum contracted 

 an extensive glandular tuberculosis." The au- 

 thors believe that the various other forms of 

 bacilli which must be injected, along with the 

 tubercle bacillus, in the human sputum may have 

 much to do with determining the virulence of the 

 tubercle bacillus itself. 



At the annual meeting of the British Medical 

 Association Dr. J. Hamilton (Aberdeen) opened 

 a discussion on the relationship between bovine 

 and human tuberculosis. As the result of ex- 

 tended experiments he had found that the local 

 infection by human tubercle produced in a calf 

 was capable of causing general tuberculosis if 

 transferred to another calf. 



The human tubercle bacillus developed slowly 

 in the calf at first, but in time produced general 

 tuberculosis. It took the bacillus some time to 

 get acclimated. The bovine-grown bacillus, as a 

 rule, excited more acute and wide-spread disease 

 than did the human-grown form, but the latter 

 gained in virulence by inoculation from one calf 

 to another. 



Prof. Sheridan Delfipine (Manchester) said 

 the experiments of Koch were so contradictory 

 to general opinion and to the experiments of 

 other observers that even his great name was not 

 sufficient to weigh down the balance on his side. 

 Personally he had been able to produce in the 

 calf true tuberculosis from human bacilli, and 

 from this he got tubercule bacilli which were still 

 more virulent. 



Dr. T. Sherman (Edinburgh) had found that 

 the bacillus tended to increase in virulence in 

 passing through a series of animals of the same 

 species, and to lose its virulence when trans- 

 ferred to an animal of another species. 



Dr. Koch, in a brilliant address at the Berlin 

 Congress, reiterated his views expressed in Lon- 

 don last year, and was of the opinion that the 

 severe measures concerning bovine tuberculosis 

 prescribed by the sanitary laws were not justi- 

 fied. 



Urea and Consumption. Dr. Henry Harper, an 

 English physician, announced in the early part 

 of last yeaV a series of experiments with urea 



