CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS. 
441 
BRITISH CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS FOR THE 
PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION. 
THE COMBATING OF TUBERCULOSIS IN THE LIGHT 
OF THE EXPERIENCE THAT HAS BEEN GAINED 
IN THE SUCCESSFUL COMBATING OF OTHER 
INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 
By Geh. Med.-Rath Professor Dr. Robert Koch, 
Direktor des Institute fur Infekt ions Kraukheiten in Berlin. 
The task with which this Congress will have to busy itself 
is one of the most difficult, but it is also one in which labor is 
most sure of its reward. 
I need not point again to the innumerable victims tubercu¬ 
losis annually claims in all countries, nor to the boundless mis¬ 
ery it brings on the families it attacks. You all know that there 
is no disease which inflicts such deep wounds on mankind as 
this. All the greater, however, would be the general joy and 
satisfaction if the efforts that are being made to rid mankind of 
this enemy, which consumes its inmost marrow, were crowned 
with success. 
There are many, indeed, who doubt the possibility of suc¬ 
cessfully combating this disease, which has existed for thou¬ 
sands of years, and has spread all over the world. This is by no 
means my opinion. This is a conflict into which we may enter 
with a surely founded prospect of success, and I will tell you the 
reasons on which I base this conviction. 
Only a few decades ago the real nature of tuberculosis was 
unknown to us ; it was regarded as a consequence, as the ex¬ 
pression, so to speak, of social misery, and, as this supposed 
cause could not be got rid of by simple means, people relied on 
the probable gradual improvement of social conditions, and did 
nothing. All this is altered now. We know that social misery 
does indeed go far to foster tuberculosis, but the real cause of 
the disease is a parasite—that is, a visible and palpable enemy, 
which we can pursue and annihilate, just as we can pursue and 
annihilate other parasitic enemies of mankind. 
Strictly speaking, the fact that tuberculosis is a preventible 
disease ought to have become clear as soon as the tubercle-ba¬ 
cillus was discovered, and the properties of this parasite and the 
manner of its transmission became known. I may add that I, 
for my part, was aware of the full significance of this discovery 
