July IS, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



61 



in the second volume of the German health re- 

 ports. 1 In this article, Koch re-affirms his original 

 announcement, and gives the results of further work 

 in the same direction, all reached by experiments 

 conducted with the same precision as the first se- 

 ries. They bear out his assertions to the full, and 

 with the exception of a few slight changes of tech- 

 nique, and a modification of the staining methods 

 employed, have led him to no change whatever in 

 regard to his views as first expressed more than two 

 years ago. 



These two papers taken together form a monument 

 of scientific accuracy and care, and, so far as subse- 

 quent investigations go, will carry conviction to the 

 mind of any impartial judge. Confirmatory evidence, 

 as regards the occurrence of the organism in ques- 

 tion in tuberculous lesions, has been offered upon all 

 sides, and in enormous mass. The real evidence, 

 however, the repetition of the culture and inocula- 

 tion experiments, is sadly deficient. This is, perhaps, 

 not to be wondered at, because the apparatus neces- 

 sary is so extensive, the training so severe, and the 

 aptitude for the work so rare. In addition to all this, 

 the time necessary for the experiments is so great, 

 that the chances are that they never will be repeated 

 to their full extent, although it is only by such thor- 

 ough and exhaustive investigation that progress in 

 this branch of scientific medicine can be expected. 



Some few observers have pretended to upset the con- 

 clusions of Koch upon the basis of extremely unsatis- 

 factory and incomplete observations. Spina of Vienna 

 is, or was, a prominent champion of this class. His 

 book was announced with a flourish as being in- 

 tended to overturn, and as actually accomplishing the 

 destruction of, all Koch's theories. Upon its pub- 

 lication, it was found to be nothing but a criticism 

 of methods that Koch himself acknowledged to be 

 faulty, and a few observations upon the occurrence 

 of the bacillus, but with an entire absence of any 

 culture, or properly conducted inoculation, experi- 

 ments whatever; in all respects being so far below 

 the work it was meant to criticise, that it was with 

 pain and mortification that we heard it mentioned 

 on the same plane, in the annual address to the 

 Massachusetts medical society of this year. This, 

 however, seems to be the limit of any noteworthy 

 objections in Europe: in this country it is different, 

 a number of gentlemen having considered themselves 

 authorized to speak in opposition to Koch's views 

 upon the ground of personal observations. For the 

 most part, however, their pretensions are too weak 

 to receive serious notice: as, for example, Schmidt's 

 cry of ' fat crystals; ' Gregg's, of ' fibrine filaments ; ' 

 Cutter's, of ' Mycoderma aceti;' or Formad's, of 

 'narrow lymph-spaces.' It is, perhaps, hardly fair 

 to speak of Formad's deplorable failure to maintain 

 his opposition to Koch by any reasonable arguments 

 at the last annual session of the American medical 

 association. Through imperfect counsel, the gentle- 

 man was induced to come before the meeting, and 

 after announcing far and wide his intention to give 



1 Mittheilungen aus dem rais. gesundheit, bd. ii., 1884. 



results that would destroy the last vestige of strength 

 to Koch's assertion in regard to the specific nature 

 of the bacillus of tuberculosi*, instead of doing this, 

 proceeded to read a reprint of an article published by 

 him last fall, announcing that his results would be 

 published in the near future. This, in the present 

 condition of all questions relating to micro-organ- 

 isms in this country, seems to be almost inexcusable. 

 These results have been promised for months, and 

 at the time of writing have not yet appeared. It 

 seems as if it were the bounden duty of all those 

 honestly interested in the advancement of scientific 

 knowledge to talk and publish less, and to work 

 more. What is needed is the publication of the results 

 of work carefully and conscientiously performed, to- 

 gether with the exact details of every step in every 

 process by which those results were reached. In 

 addition to this, we have a right to demand that all 

 work of this kind shall be done by trained observers, 

 in the presence of others equally well qualified for 

 the observation, — not with and by half-trained 

 students, — and that the very best appliances of 

 modern research shall be employed in each and every 

 observation made. In this way, and in this way 

 only, can reliance be placed upon observations re- 

 corded in work on micro-organisms; and it is the 

 absence of work of this kind which gives so very 

 little force to the opponents of the specific nature of 

 the bacillus of tuberculosis. At the same time, it is 

 the presence of this very accuracy of the detailed ac- 

 count of every step in the process by which the results 

 were reached, and of the completeness of the ex- 

 periments and control experiments, that gives the 

 convincing power to Koch's work. Nothing that can 

 be for an instant compared with it for simplicity and 

 directness of statement, or completeness of detail, has 

 yet been brought forward by his opponents. Until 

 that is done, and it does not look probable at the 

 present writing, his work must be accepted as con- 

 clusive; and measures should be taken to control 

 to some extent the wide-spread destruction of this 

 disease, as it is most certainly within our power 

 to do. 



Koch's own work upon the subject of tuberculosis 

 has been suspended for a year, owing to his absence 

 in the east with the German cholera commission, 

 with which he has lately returned. Whether he 

 himself will take it up again is to be doubted: for 

 his facilities for work are unbounded, and his natural 

 impulse will, of course, be to open up untrodden 

 paths of research. 



THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. 



The board of visitors of this institution held its 

 annual session on Saturday, June 14, and heard the 

 report of the astronomer royal on the work of the 

 observatory during the twelve-month ended May 20. 

 Of this, Mr. Christie says, "It has gone on steadily 

 in the same lines as in former years, with such small 

 extensions in certain directions as could be made 

 without infringing the long-established principle that 



