398 ON THE ORIGIN, PROPAGATION, 



1891. 



ON THE ORIGIN, PROPAGATION, AND 

 PREVENTION OF PHTHISIS. 



TT is now a little over nine years since I received here, 

 -- at Hind Head, a memoir by Professor Koch on the 

 " Etiology of Tuberculosis." Taking it in all its bear- 

 ings, the memoir seemed to me of extraordinary interest 

 and importance, not only to the medical men of Eng- 

 land, but to the community at large. I therefore drew 

 up and sent an account of it to the Times. The dis- 

 covery of the tubercle bacillus was therein announced 

 for the first time, and by experiments of the most defi- 

 nite and varied character the propagation and action of 

 this terrible organism were demonstrated. 



With regard to his recent labours, Professor Koch 

 may or may not have been hasty in the publication of 

 his remedies for consumption. On this point it would 

 be out of place, on my part, to say a word. But the in- 

 vestigations which first rendered his name famous, and 

 which, I believe, were introduced to the English pub- 

 lic by myself, are irrefragable. His renowned inquiry 

 on anthrax caused him to be transferred from a modest 

 position near Breslau, to the directorship of the Im- 

 perial Sanitary Institute of Berlin, where he was soon 

 surrounded by able colleagues and assistants. Con- 

 spicuous among these was Dr. Georg Cornet, whose 

 labours on the diffusion of tuberculosis constitute the 

 subject of this article. 



