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KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



THE BACILLUS TUBERCULOSIS THE CAUSE OF TUBERCLE. 



The important investigation of Koch on the bacillus tuberculosis, are attract- 

 ing considerable attention in professional and lay circles. 



Koch has examined for bacilli the expectoration of people suffering from pul- 

 monary phthisis, and has found them in great abundance. Such a, sputum, 

 when injected into the circulation of an animal, quickly produced tubercular 

 disease. The expectoration, on the other hand, of non-phthisical individuals 

 contained no bacilli, and did not injure the health of an animal inoculated with it. 

 Another point of considerable interest for the practitioner is, that the bacilli do 

 not lose their vitality when dried; for phthisical sputum which had been kept dry 

 for two, four, or eight weeks, was as capable as ever of producing tubercle in ani- 

 mals into which it had been injected. Koch's observations are, therefore, of the 

 greatest value ; and with the precise knowledge of the contagium of tubercle which 

 he has placed at our disposal, if fully confirmed, we will be warranted in believing 

 that we are within measureable distance of preventing and arresting one of the 

 most fatal maladies to which the human race is subject. 



Other bacilli succumb to the toxic action of many of the antiseptics ; the 

 bacilli of tubercle will doubtless prove no exception. The main difficulty will lie 

 with the impermeability of the non-vascular tubercular nodule, in which the bacilli 

 are embedded, to the antiseptics. With a sufficiently volatic and diffusive anti- 

 septic this difficulty may be overcome, and tubercle be placed among the more 

 curable diseases. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Seventh Anniversary Meeting of the 

 Kansas City Academy of Science was held 

 at the First Baptist Church on the evening 

 of the 30th ult. The Annual Address by Rev. 

 Alexander Proctor was listened to by a large 

 and attentive audience. The principal points 

 made were as follows : 



I. The two great problems presented al- 

 ways and everywhere to the human mind for 

 solution, viz : Nature and the Life of Man, 

 or Matter and Spirit. 2. The reason why 

 these problems have been so hard how to solve 

 lies in the universal presence of superstition. 

 3. This rendered necessary some allusion 

 to its history showing what forms these prob- 

 lems have opened from time to time in its 



history. 4. It still persists in the most ad- 

 vanced forms of thought in the most advanc- 

 ed civilizations, making the necessity for the 

 continuance of the struggle as great as ever. 

 5. Specific instances of its presence in the 

 best forms of our scientific and religious 

 thought. 6. The study and practical culti- 

 vation of the natural sciences the only means 

 of its removal. 



After the address, which will probably be 

 published in full next month, a business 

 meeting was held at which the Annual Re- 

 ports of the various officers were made and 

 the following officers elected for the ensuing 

 year : Hon. R. T. VanHorn, President ; W. 

 H. Miller, Vice-President ; J. D. Parker, Re- 



