The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-12-18
DIR. KotH's REMEDY.

Notwithstanding the precautions which
have been taken by DIR. Koch and his assist
ants, an analysis OF his remedy for con-
sumption has been made at Paris, and it is
found to consist of glycerine, cyanure of
gold and the "ptomaines of tubercuiar
baciili." Giycerine is employed to preserve
the ptomaines. What object the gold is to
serve does not appear. The p,omaines are
designed TO cure tuberculosis homeopathic
caly. The first thing, therefore, which the
public want to know is, what is ptomaine?
A ptomaine is a chemical compound
classed as cadayeric alkaloid, which re-
suits from the putrefactive decomposition
OF organic matter. and is usually highly
poisonous. The poison contained in de-
cayed meat, fish, milk and other organic
foods is ptomaine. Ptomaines are found
in the stomachs OF corpses, and they also
exist in decayed tissues and wounds in
which gangrene has set in. There is a par
tieular piomaine in which the tubercular
bacilli breed. Generated in this eongenial
soil, the bacillus multiplies, spreads through
the system, makes its way into the blood
and causes the disease which we call con-
sumption.
Dealing with ptomaines as the true source
of pyemia and septicemia, physicians have
fought them with antiseptics, especial atten-
ton to cleanliness, and the administration
Of drugs which are calculated to arrest fer
mentation. The calculation has been that
if decay and fermentation could be arrested
the ptomai mes could be sloughed off and no
habitat left for the bacilIi which they
engender. Dr. Koch. it seems, pursues pre-
cisely the opposite course. He proposes to
inoculate patients who are in the early stages
of tuberculosis with poisonous ptomaines.
on the same principle that Jenner inoculated
healthy patients with cowpox in order to
protect them against the severer forms OF
varioloid. Koch proposes to introduce tuber-
cular becilli into the system in harmless
form, in order to prevent the same baciill
from making their appearance in numbers
and under Conditions which would endanger
life.
The logic of his method is perfect pro-
yided he can be sure that his bacili will
prove as harmless as he reckons II his
subcu taneous injections are attended with
no m ore effects than vaccination, and the
tubercular bacilli disappear in the face of
the baciili he calls into being, he has solved
the problem of The age. But to the common
lay mind. the conditions involve difficulty
why should the tubercular bacillus, which
has established domcile and is spreading
through the blood and tissues, take to fight
at the appearance on the Gene of another
member Of his own family And again. how is
DIR. Koch going to make sure that his bacil illus,
which he introduces into the human body,
will prove harmless and benign creature?
There are probably good and sufficient
answers to these questions, which DIR. Koch
will give to the public in his own way and
at the proper time. In the meantime he
must have male out a prima facie case, or
so prudent and eminent Il man as DR. jacob
would not have inoculated eight patients at
the Mount Sinai hospital in New York with
the lymph he received frem Berlin. On a
superficial view, ii seems dangerous business
to mix with the blood OF human being
substance which is as ven6mous as the
poison of a rattlesnake. But the modern
pharmacopeia leans more and more every
day to the use of poisons as remedial agents.
Our best medicines to-day are deathly poisons,
if taken in large doses. 1t will be curious
illustration OF the flexibility Of science II the
chief cause of zymotic disease should turn
out to be the best remedy for other organic
maiadies.