Editorial. 
281 
the removal of foreign bodies from the ear. From the context of 
his remarks it seems not likely that he was aware of the existence 
of Dr. Billroth’s instrument, or any similar invention based on 
the same idea. 
THE ORIGIN OF ^ TUBERCULOSIS . 
Referring to our previous article in the January number, in 
which we communicated Dr. Washington’s letter on the experi¬ 
ments of CoHNHEiM (and Frankel, the associate in his labors), 
we deem it a matter of some importance to lay before our readers 
the actual conclusions these two experimenters deemed themselves 
warranted in expressing. They are embodied in an extended 
article in Virchow's Arekiv , Bd. xlv., p. 216 ; and we take 
pains to transcribe their own words (pp. 227-229) as literally as 
possible : 
^_“JNo one, ~ indeed, can be less inclined than We, to draw too 
far going conclusions from our 1 experiments, but we do believe 
that the whole series of them and especially the three performed 
on dogs, in which we are unable to discover any essential sources 
of error, justify and compel this conclusion : that it is really the 
necrosed and inspissated fus , to the reception of which into 
the circulation tuberculosis owes its origin. This assumption 
fully explains all facts which have come under observation in our 
entire series of experiments ; and the results of all other experi¬ 
menters may also, we think, be interpreted in this way without 
constraint. Every inoculation, in the rabbit or Guinea-pig, at 
whatever place performed, or with whatever material, must have 
produced conditions under which an accumulation and subsequent 
inspissation of pus could take place, and therewith, as we assume, 
the possibility of tuberculosis being developed ; in the dog, on 
the other hand, where, as is well known, such inspissation Of pus 
very rarely occurs, the production of tuberculosis has for that 
reason been effected in so few cases only, and one seems to be 
certain of success only when the necrosed thickened pus is intro¬ 
duced directly into the circulation of the animal. At firstjsight, 
it might appear paradoxical, that so striking a fact as the develop¬ 
ment of general tuberculosis in consequence of the inspissation of 
pus should not long be known, When every physiological labora¬ 
tory offer daily opportunity to verify it; at the same time, it should 
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