1891.] Editorial. 127 
corpore vili, was prepared to inoculate the human subject. But 
the nature of his remedy and the method of its composition were 
to be kept a profound secret. 
The first inoculation into the human economy took place on 
September 22d, in a case of lupus, but it was not until the first 
week in November that it was given out that Professor Koch 
was ready to make inoculations on a general scale Itis not ger- 
mane, however, to our purpose to do more than refer in passing 
to these events, or the exodus to Berlin, which is fresh in the pub- 
lic mind. 
On November 15th Dr. Dixon, in the Philadelphia Zim? and 
Register (medical), clearly explained his position, as well as the 
result of his experiments up to that date. He wrote: “ The 
hypothesis advanced in my terse article in the Medical News of 
October, 1889, have given the most brilliant results; yet I have 
"never felt that the time had arrived for me to experiment on the 
human subject. Nor do I mean to be tempted to take any risks 
until the act would be purely an unselfish one. Even with the 
results that have been obtained in my laboratory, I would be 
sorry to have the general public stimulated with the idea that 
inoculation for tubercular phthisis had been perfected. 
“Owing to the rumored report that Professor Koch has been, 
and is, inoculating human beings, it behooves me to await his re- 
sults and understand his methods. If, however, it should appear 
that he is working on different lines, and that his plan is less dan- 
gerous than mý own, it will be welcomed and adopted by me.” 
On November 18th Dr. Dixon laid before the Academy of 
Natural Sciences a report summarizing in more detail his work of 
investigation on the tubercle bacillus. After alluding to the 
capability of the bacillus of changing from its commonly recog- 
nized rod-form to that of a more compound one, club-shaped, 
curved, or branched, which he believed to be either involution or 
degenerate forms, he went on to say: “ There would appear to 
be in this homogeneous mass something other than the bodies of 
the micro-organisms, This may be the residue of the pabulum 
remaining after the bacilli have selected what was necessary for 
their existence, or a digestive secretion, or again it may be an 
Nat.—February.—3. ; 
