SCIE 



lEntered at the Post-OfHce of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Ninth Year. 

 Vol. XVII. No. 416. 



NEW YORK, Jaktjakt 23, 1891. 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 3.50 Per Year, in Advance. 



THE MEDICAL PRESS ON KOCH'S CURE. 

 The Epidemic of Kochism. 



The fact that the new and untried method of Koch pro- 

 duced an immediate and world-wide sensation is perhaps not 

 to be wondered at, but it furnishes nevertheless a very inter- 

 esting study. What might, for present purposes, be called 

 the epidemic of Kochism, first appeared in Berlin at the time 

 of the International Congress, but remained local and dor- 

 mant for about three months, when it suddenly spread with 

 increasing force and great rapidity, taking roughly the same 

 course as the epidemic of influenza a year ago. It appeared 

 in America, however, before it did in France, perhaps owing 

 to the more positive and far-reaching ubiquity of our press. 

 It has only lately begun to be felt in the far East and South. 

 It is yet too early to say how long it will last, but it shows 

 signs of waning in Germany. A well-marked feature of the 

 epidemic is a sudden revival when the first consignments of 

 " Kochine " reach a given locality. Members of the medical 

 profession are generally attacked a little later than the laity, 

 and often escape altogether, except when brought into the 

 vicinity of newly arrived Kochine. Kochism produces cer- 

 tain typical symptoms in members of the medical prof<;ssion 

 who are unfortunate enough to be afflicted with the malady, 

 but our study is limited to the laity, and in fact to one class 

 of sufferers. The effects of the epidemic on the laity differ, 

 and show marked characteristics in different classes, especially 

 among newspaper reporters, members of phthisical families, 

 and irregular practitioners, among whom, by careful search, 

 may be found symptoms which are respectively ludicrous, 

 pathetic, and disreputable. — Boston Medical and Surgical 

 Journal, Jan. 15, 1891. 



The Koch Remedy for Tuberculosis. 



It is now about two months since Koch made the announce- 

 ment of his "remedy" for tuberculosis, and it may be said 

 to have had a fair opportunity to show what it would ac- 

 complish. Of course, there has not been time to show cures 

 without possibility of recurrence, — years might not suffice 

 for this, — but there has been plenty of time to show if it 

 could produce impi-ovement of steadily progressive character, 

 and furnish ground for hope that eventually some form of 

 tuberculosis would be, in a fair sense of the term, cured 

 through its influence upon the human economy. Unfortu- 

 nately, after all, it is impossible to say that the lymph can 

 be relied upon for any of the purposes indicated by Koch in 

 his first announcement. It is not a trustworthy means of 

 diagnosis, nor a reliable remedy for any form of tuberculosis ; 

 while experience has demonstrated that it is dangerous when 

 used either for diagnosis or for treatment. Professor Vircho w, 

 who has been making investigations on the lymph treatment, 



last week asserted, after twenty-one post-mortem examina- 

 tions of patients who had died after injection, that the Koch 

 method is not what had been hoped or claimed for it, and 

 that there can be no permanent benefit from it to the patient. 

 The tubercle bacilli, he says, are not killed by the lymph, but 

 are only driven out to take lodgement elsewhere. Thus, 

 according to his theory, tuberculous affections, while they 

 may disappear from one part of the body, break out in other 

 places in as discouraging a form as ever. To this we may 

 add that the phenomena of certain cases, in which it has been 

 asserted that unsuspected tuberculosis of the lungs had been 

 revealed by treatment with the lymph, warrant the belief 

 that the lymph may set up a tuberculous process in persons 

 entirely free from disease. — Medical and Surgical Reporter, 

 Jan. 17, 1891. 



Virchow and Koch. 



There is probably no one living whose opinions are listened 

 to with the same respect as are those of Virchow, who has 

 been so correctly called the " father of modern pathology." 

 The statements of this eminent man are also particularly in- 

 teresting when they concern the new method of treating 

 tuberculosis, and become still more important when they 

 seem in any way opposed to the almost ecstatic reports of the 

 physicians who have used the mystic liquid in Germany and 

 elsewhere. The statements of Virchow, which are published 

 in the Extra attached to this number of the Medical Neius, 

 show that a possibility exists of a sad curtailment of our 

 hopes for the relief of the " white plague," and emphasize 

 the fact, that, do what we will, the mortality must go on 

 unimpeded to a very great extent. — Medical Neivs, Jan. 

 17, 1891. 



The Lymph and its Re-actions. 



The publication of Professor Koch regarding the compo- 

 sition of the lymph, considering the great expectations which 

 have been aroused concerning it, is rather disappointing 

 than otherwise. Aside from the mention of the ingredients 

 contained in the fluid, we are in little, if any, better condi- 

 tion as to the possibility of its production in our own labora- 

 tories than we were before. Still the information, as far as 

 it is given, will add much interest to the study of the results 

 of lymph treatment in their relations to the supposed causes 

 of their production : in other words, we are so much the better 

 enabled to think for ourselves, and so much the more en- 

 couraged to work in accumulating data by which the new 

 theory must stand or fall. We are making enough progress 

 in the latter direction to take courage accordingly, and hope 

 for the best in the direction of eventually settling many of 

 the mooted points of a startling revolutionary doctrine. 



Much of the interest of our investigations has centred upon 

 the value of the re-actions, general and local, as diagnostic 

 of tuberculosis in various pai-ts of the body. Although the 



