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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
ciple quite simple. It merely consists in inoculating pure blood or 
serum with micro-organisms, and noting the number of colonies or 
individuals which appear from time to time or at certain intervals after 
inoculation. The results obtained by these experimenters tend to show 
that serum and defibrinated blood are quite capable of killing germs, so 
long as they — the serum and blood — retain their vital action. If, how- 
ever, their constitution be altered or impaired by the addition of certain 
substances, or the subtraction of certain constituents by altered environ- 
ment or physical condition, then the germicidal action also is altered, 
and this alteration is usually for the worse. 
The main inference from these experiments, and that for which they 
were probably instituted, is to show that the doctrine of phagocytes is 
untenable, or, at any rate, is not required to explain certain germicidal 
phenomena. 
Prof. Koch’s Remedy for Tuberculosis. — If, as we sincerely hope, 
Prof. Robert Koch has succeeded in discovering a remedy for tuber- 
culosis, our Journal should contain a record which will be permanent, 
as compared with the reports which the Fellows have read in the daily 
newspapers. We give, therefore, copious extracts from Dr. Koch’s 
“ further communication,” published in the ‘ Deutsche Medizinische 
Wochenschrift,’ of Nov. 14th, and translated in a supplement to the 
British Medical Journal’ of Nov. 15th, 1890. 
“ In an address delivered before the International Medical Congress 
I mentioned a remedy which conferred on the animals experimented on 
an immunity against inoculation with the tubercle bacillus, and which 
arrests tuberculous disease. Investigations have now been carried out 
on human patients, and these form the subject of the following 
observations. 
It was originally my intention to complete the research, and especially 
to gain sufficient experience regarding the application of the remedy in 
practice and its production on a large scale before publishing anything 
on the subject. But, in spite of all precautions, too many accounts have 
reached the public, and that in an exaggerated and distorted form, so 
that it seems imperative, in order to prevent all false impressions, to give 
at once a review of the position of the subject at the present stage of the 
inquiry. It is true that this review can, under these circumstances, be 
only brief, and must leave open many important questions. 
Nature and Physical Characters of the Remedy . — As regards the 
origin and the preparation of the remedy I am unable to make any state- 
ment, as my research is not yet concluded ; I reserve this for a future com- 
munication. The remedy is a brownish transparent liquid, which does 
not require special care to prevent decomposition. For use this fluid 
must be more or less diluted, and the dilutions are liable to decomposi- 
tion if prepared with distilled water ; bacterial growths soon develope in 
them, they become turbid and are then unfit for use. To prevent this 
the diluted liquid must be sterilized by heat and preserved under a 
cotton wool stopper, or more conveniently prepared with a half per cent, 
solution of phenol. 
Manner of Using the Remedy . — It would seem, however, that the 
effect is weakened both by frequent heating and by mixture with phenol 
solution, and I have therefore always made use of freshly prepared 
