Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-05-17

gage in .such work is equivalent to
sanctioning their suicide. To send
them would be official murder.
The Tubercle Parasite.
Professor Tyndall's letter on the ma
ture of tubercular disease, is an impor-
tant contribution to medical science
1t embodies the results not of his own
but of DR.. Koch's mastery investiga-
tions which have been conducted in
Berlin in relation to the deadiest
of modern diseases This German
investigator, having successfully
traced parasite throu gh all its stages
of development in splenic fever, has
applied the same method of study to
the great class of tubercular diseases.
He finds that consuptioa of the lungs
and cognate diseases of the liver,
kidney and intestines are caused by
the presence in the blood of living
parasite analogous to that which is
developed in intermittent and other
fevers In the centre of the tuberc!e
cell is the microscopic organism which
has created it. The tubercle is in fact
infested with rod-shapcd parasites
which do not depend upon any virus
imbedded in the diseased organ. DIR.
Koch, having discovered these organ
isms, cultivated them artificially, and
after developing several generations of
them without the Intervention of dis
ease, introduced them into the blood of
healthy guinea-pigs, cats, rabbits and
other animals. The result in every
case was the reproduction of the para
site and the rapid development of tu-
bercular disease. This was prac-
tical demonstration of his theory that
tubercular disease Is due to the pres
ence and reproduction of the bacillus,
and that the parasite does not depend
on diseased condition ofthe organ.
While DR.. Koch has not been the
first investigator to identify pulmonary
consumption with ordinary eruptive
fevers, or even to attribute the infec-
tive property of tubercular disease to
the presence of microscopic organisms,
he has made tenable theory out of
what was at best an ingenious sur
mise. He has found the disease-produc-
ing bacillus and cultivated it, not only
from diseased lungs but even from
matter eApectorated by consumptive
patients, and has proved that tubercle
can be communicated by incubation.
Professor Tyndall confines his atten-
ton to the scientific results of the
Germans investigations, and makes
no attempt to anticipate the practical
benefits which may be derived from
the development of this new theory of
tubercular disease DR. Koch has not
succeeded SO far in producing by cul-
tivation a mild form of the disease.
Although he has bred artifcially as
many as sightgenerations ofthe parasite
the effects of purfication were not ap-
parent. In the eighth generation, as
in the first, decided and in most cases
virulcnt tubercular disease was the re-
suit of incubation. Nevertheless it is
well-established fact that parasites
which produce analogous disease in
in animals and in the human system
can be modified by cultivation until
they finally produce mild form OF
those diseases, and in this way protec-
tion may be afforded against virulent
conditions. The analogies of diseases
imply that it may be possible to pro-
cure from guinea-pigs or rabbits al ef-
fetive inoculant against consumption,
precisely as smallpox germs are cul-
tivatcd in the cow or splenic fever
germs in q sheep. 1t is the possibil-
ity of converting the occupant of a
tubercle cell into prophylactic or
preventative agent that lends impor
tance to these interesting experiments.
This possibility is not outlined iii
Professor TyndalPs letter, but it may
readily be inferred from the vigorous
rebuke which he administers to the
nti-vivisectionists in his closing para
graph.
The gold and silver mines of the
United States produced last year about
seventy-seven millions of dollars of the
precious metal According to the an
nual statement of Mr. John j. Valen-
tine, the General Superintendent of
Wells, Fargo & Co., the yield of gold
was $31 1863, ,6S6, and of silver S45, ,077,-
s29. The supply of gold from Cali
fornia, as compared with 1880. was
less by toward six hundred thousand
dollars, but there was an increase of
over three hundred thousand dollars in
silver. The total falling off in Nevada
Was over three millions, due to the
greatly diminished production of the
Comstock mines. Colorado, however,
showed an increase of nearly seventeen
hundred thousand dollars, and Arizona
of more than three millions and three
quarters.
During 1881, however, the stocks
our gold, silver and copper mining
companies invariably declined in market
value, and in some cases the deprecia-
tion was very great. They sold for
less at the end of the year than at the
beginning, the falling off occurring
both in the stocks of the mines which
paid dividends and in those which did
not, and which had never returned any
profit.
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