Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1882 — THE TUBERCULAR PARASITE. [ARTICLE]

THE TUBERCULAR PARASITE.

rite Ketnarkable Discovery of a German Physician. (From the Chicago Tribune.] That monster, consumption, which the poets have described as horsed on tho east winds and shooting his fatal arrows broadcast, it would now seem baa at last been brought to bay Dy science. The great discovery of the splenetio fever-producing bacilli by tho eminent- French physician, Pasteur, and bis cure by inoculation, which produces a mild disease instead of a severe one, has been followed by a discovery that promises to be more important in its results by Dr. Koch, of B/rlin. Dr. Pasteur is saving the lives of sheep and cattle by inoculation with the bacillus after it has been modified in its character by cultivation in the bodies of bovines. Dr. Koich may yet savo the lives of htirnan beings from the results of diseases hitherto considered incurable by & very similar process. Prof. Tyndall, who has carefully studied Dr. Koch’s experiments, and who, it will be remembered, was the original discoverer of the bacteria and their insidious dauger to man, has written to the London Times his impressions of Koch’s discovery. In the course of his examinations ho found in every case that the tubercles contained a parasite, the bacillus, and that it was this minute organism that produced the tubercle, and, transferring by inoculation the tuberoulous matter from diseased to healthy animals, he never failed to produce the disease. He developed several generations of the bacilli without the intervention of disease, and these purified parasites in every case also generated the disease.

These experiments were so many times repeated with different animals and in different forms that there can remain no doubt that Dr. Koch has discovered what has never been known before—the origin of consumption and of other diseases like pneumonia and phthisis. This is a great step gained. The cause discovered, it now remains for scienoe to find the remedy that will destroy these parasites and prevent their recurrence by inoculation or some other form of cure. Pasteur’s remedy, in cases of splenic fever, as we have already said, is inoculation with tho bacillus after it has been modifiod in character by cultivation. Dr. Koch has attempted a similar moaificalion with the tubercle parasite, but after repeated cultivation the virulence remains. Prof. Tyndall and those competent to pronounce an opinion, however, believe that the intensity of virulence will be greatly diminished by future experiments in cultivation.

Meanwhile it is not a secret in the medical ■world, or at least among some of the more eminent physicians, that Dr. Pasteur himself has made experiments of a highly interesting character in the destruction of those parasites. It is well known to all surgeons that carbolic acid is very efficacious in destroying bacteria in gunshot wounds, sword-cuts or other injuries of this kind, and that the proper use of its agency has been hindered by its impurity. Dr. Pasteur found it upon analysis to contain traces of poison and foreign substances that were harmful enough to prevent its perfeot operation, and succeeded in removing them ana producing a perfectly pure acid, with which he has been experimenting by Hypodermic injections with remarkable success in cases of consumption and its kindred dieeases, as well as cancer. Where the diseases were long-seated and the patient too weak and too far gone to resist the disease, he has prolonged life, and in the incipient stages he has mred in almost every case. Consumption is the ghastliest and most deadly foe that confronts the human race. It is almost universal. It is no respecter of persons or of nations. Dr. Koch himself says that “If the seriousness of a malady be measured by the number of victims, then the most dreaded pests which have hitherto ravaged the world—plague and cholera included—must stand far behind the one (consumption) now under consideration;” and that one-seventh of the deaths of the imman race are due to tubercular disease, while fully one-third of those who die in aclivo middle age are carried off by the same cause. Important as Dr. Koch’s discovery is, the greater one remains—namely: the remedy. Having gained one vantage in the combat with the destroyer, it is to be hoped science will press on until the victory is complete.