Dr. Koch's Cure. 

 Professor Watson. 



(Adelaide, South-Australia.) 



The following report by Professor Watson on his visit to Germany 

 and investigation of the Koch consumption cure has been forwarded 

 to the Chief Secretary: — Mount Lofty, April 21, 1891. Sir — I have 

 the honor to report that agreeably to your orders I proceeded to 

 Berlin in January last with a view of learning the details of Professor 

 Koch's remedy by personal observation. Having heard on arrival in 

 Marseilles that a select committee had been formed in Paris to enquire 

 into the working of Koch's fluid, of which an ample supply had been 

 provided by Professor Koch, I went to Paris, where I remained 

 several days, and then proceeded to Berlin. It is not my object to 

 discuss statistics, as they have been fully entered into by my friend, 

 Professor Anderson Stuart, in the able and monumental report which 

 he has forwarded to the South Australian Government. The investi- 

 gations of the Paris committee embraced the application of the remedy 

 to all forms of both internal and external tuberculosis, viz, pulmonary 

 phthisis (consumption), tuberculosis of the skin (lupus), of bones and 

 joints (caries), and glands and other viscera (scrofula). The committee 

 found that Koch's fluid, although usually producing a more or less 

 beneficial local effect, was not sufficient to effect a cure; and moreover 

 that the favorable local effect could not be produced without causing 

 dangerous general disturbance. The committee were also of opinion 

 that old and quiescent tubercular foci were stirred up into renewed 

 mischievous activity by the action of Koch's fluid. As the assistants 

 of two of the leading Parisian experimenters were on the point of 

 visiting Berlin with a view to comparing these disappointing results 

 with those of their German colleagues, I took the opportunity to ac- 

 company them. At Berlin our further investigations were greatly 

 facilitated by an old fellow student of mine, Dr. Schlange, first assistant 

 of Professor von Bergmann. We had not the honor of meeting with 

 Professor Koch as he had ceased experimenting in the hospitals and 



