The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-05-10
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1882.
CONSU MPTI0N.
A New and Startling Theory as to
Its Origin.
Something for Everybody to Read and
Ponder Over.

By the English mail the following
letter from Prof. John Tyndall, to the
editor of the London Times, comes To
hand: On the 26th of March. 1882, all
address of very serious public import
was delivered by DIR. Koch before the
Physiological society of Berlin. II
touched a question in which we are all
at present interested-that of expert
mental physiology-and l may, there
fore, be permitted to give some account
of it in the Times. The address, a cop
of which has been c~ourteously sent to
me by its author, is entitled The Ell
ology of Tubercular Disease" Koch
first made himself known by the pene-
tration, skill and thoroughness of his
researches on the contagion of splenic
fever. By a process of incubation
and infection he traced this parasite
through all its stages of development
and through its various modes of action.
This mastery investigation caused the
young physician to be transferred from
a modest country practice, in the neigh
borhood of B~reslau, to the post of gov
eminent adviser in the Imperial health
department in Berlin.
STARTLING STATEMENTS.
From this department has lately is
sued a most important series of inyesti-
cations on the etiologY of infective dis
orders. Koch's last inquiry deals with
a disease which, in point of mortality,
stands at the head of them all. If, he
says, the seriousness of a malady be
measured by the number of its victims,
then the most dreadful pests which
ha We hitherto ravaged the world-plague
and cholera included-must stand far
behind the one now under considera-
ton. Koch makes the startling state
ment that one seventh Of the deaths of
the human:race are due to tubercular
disease, while fully one-third Of those
who die in active middle age are carried
off by the same cause. Prior to Koch
it had been placed beyond doubt that
bhC uloJhoC wac COMMUNICATION All bhC
aim of the Berlin physician has been to
determine the precise character of the
c~ontagium, which previous experiments
OF incubation and inhalation bad
proved to be capable Of indefinite
transfer and reproduction. He sue
jected the diseased organs of II great
number of men and animals to micro
scopic examination, aud found, in all
cases, the tubercles infested with n
minute,
RoD-suAPED PARASITE,
which by means of u special dye, he diff.
ferentiated from the surrounding tissue.
1t was, he says, in the highest degIee.
impressive to observe in the center Il
the tubercle cell the minute organism
which had created it. Transferring
directly, by incubation, the tubercu-
lous matter from diseased animals 10
healthy ones, he in every instance re-
produced the disease. To meet the oh.
lection that II was not the parasite
itself, but some virus in which IL was
imbedded in the diseased organ, that
was the real cOntagium, he cultivated
his bdciR artiiclally, for long periods Of
time, and through many successive gen
eratiOns. With u speck of matter, for
example, from a tuberculuus human be-
ing, he infected II substance prepared,
after much trial by himself, with the
view Of affording nutriment to the par
asite. Here he permitted it to grow
and multiply. From this new genera
tion he took a minute sample and in
fected Herewith fresh nutritive matter,
thus producing another brood. Gentr-
tionlafter generation of Jdcilli were de-
veloped in this way without the inter
yention of disease. At the end OF the
process, which sometimes embraced
successive civilizations extending over
half a year, the purified JaciUi were in
troduced into the circulation of healthy
animals of various kinds. In every
Ease incubation was followed by the
reproduction and spread of the parasite
and the generation of the original dis
ease.
KOCH's EXPERIMENTS.
Permit me to give a further, though
still brief aud sketchy, account of DR..
Koch's experiments. OF six guinea
pigs, all in good health, four were in
oculated with JacilR derived originally
from a human lung, which in "a days
produced five successive generations
Two of the six animals were not infect
ed. In every one of the infected cases
the guinea pig sickened and lost flesh.
After % days one of them died, and 80
days after the remaining Eve were
killed and examined. In the guinea
pig that died, and in the three remain