GERMS. 107 



Dr. Koch has since prepared a substance called T. E., 

 which he claims will cure consumption. This prepara- 

 tion is made from the germs themselves, as the doctor 

 now claims they contain a substance that will cure the 

 disease, and the care and attention to detail with which 

 the doctor (Koch) prepares his T. E., is a perfect revela- 

 tion of the ingenuity of a crazy Dutchman who lives in 

 Germany. 



The doctor takes a culture of young germs which he 

 claims are the cause of consumption. "He first dries 

 the germs, then grinds them, then the product is sus- 

 pended in water, then filtered and dried and pounded 

 and thrashed and treated with drug solvents, washed 

 and filtered and pounded again, then made into an 

 aqueous solution, decanted and pressed." But the 

 doctor is not yet satisfied, and with sleeves rolled up 

 and perspiration dripping from every pore, he still 

 pursues the innocent germ. He places them in a 

 centrifugal machine where any remaining life is whirled 

 out of them. The resulting product is now called 

 T. R. 



It has been suspected that the doctor, becoming dis- 

 satisfied with his tuberculin, is equally ashamed of his 

 second attempt, hence the abbreviation T. E. 



Has Dr. Koch ever cured a case of consumption with 

 his T. E. ? No. Even that standard authority, Green's 

 Pathology, page 314, says : "T. E,, up to the present, 

 seems to prove that it has no curative effect on tuber- 

 culosis in man.*' Dr. Koch has had several years in 

 which to prove the value of his claims, yet consumption 

 is as fatal to-day as ever. I know there are those who 



