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prophylactic against a second or more acute attack of the same 

 complaint. It is believed by some that during the first attack the 

 isystem has been permantly exhausted of the nutriment necessary 

 to the existence of the germs of that special disease. On this 

 point hinges the whole theory of preventive vaccination. This is 

 a subject which interests not only doctors but the world at large, 

 for if animals can be protected by inoculation from fowl-cholera, 

 anthrax, and rabies, it is quite possible that when the science of 

 bacteriology is better understood, mankind may be exempted from 

 all such diseases as phthisis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, cholera, and 

 indeed all those caused by poisoning germs. 



As you all know, Dr. Koch professes to have already found the 

 curative injection for phthisis, and it is on the principle of 

 protective inoculation that his treatment of consumption is based. 

 Koch claims that his injection, which is a glycerine extract of a 

 pure cultivation of the tubercle bacilli, produces a destructive 

 influence on the diseased or tubercular portion of the lungs or 

 other parts, and that in consequence the especial bacilli to which 

 phthisis is supposed to be due can no longer find sustenance there. 

 He states explicitly that it does not poison or destroy the bacilli. 

 During the four months which have elapsed during the announce- 

 ment of his discovery, many thousands of people suffering both 

 from lupus and consumption have been injected, but the result 

 has not proved satisfactory, as very few cases of cure are even 

 claimed, and there have been very numerous deaths from the 

 treatment, while in a great many cases the patients have been 

 made much worse, and slight cases of phthisis have been converted 

 into galloping consumption. This is a great disappointment both 

 to the public and the profession, who had but too confidently 

 accepted the truth of the great scientist's assertion, that his treat- 

 ment would cure consumption in its earliest stages. I have the 

 greatest respect for Professor Koch as a scientific chemist and an 

 earnest pioneer in the deeper mysteries of science, but I can but 

 deplore that he was so unfortunately advised as to introduce his 

 remedy in a manner so little in accordance with the traditions and 

 practice of scientific men of this country. 



Koch's fluid or tubercular as it is now called, was, until quite 

 recently, to all intents and purposes, a secret remedy, and even 

 now, he has only told us what it is, without giving such details as 

 would enable English chemists to manufacture it for themselves. 

 Tuberculin is an animal poison of the nature of a ptomaine, more 

 powerful than almost any known drug, and its injection is usually 

 followed by grave and violent symptoms, such as fever 

 and inflammation, sometimes delirium and other signs of profound 

 ■disturbance of the system; it is undoubtedly a treatment which 



