Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-14
SINGLE TUBERCULAR BACILLUS LAY

A SINGLE TUBERCULAR BACILLUS LAY
"A imprisoned under q glass slide beneath
the concentration Of q powerful microscope
through which q STAR reporter was gazing the
other day at the Providence Hospital At
least DR.. Geddings, who owns the bacillus, for
exhibition purposes, said il was one. and he
had to be believed. 1t was q small object,
more like . stick than anything else, reddish in
color, with . strange resemblance to a ladder.
Indeed the word small, with its finite refer
encss and relation to things that exist in ordi-
nary life. is scarce the word for this purpose.
The bacillus was so small that it took good
deal of peering through the lens on the part of
the reporter and considerable direction on the
part of the doctor for the former to discover it
among the crowd Of other queer forms and
shapes that were keeping it company between
the slips of glass But there was no doubt
after all had been explained that this was
genuine bacillus such as lies at the root of that
dread disease, consumption, which rejoices In
the more euphonious but less Ineligible cog
nomen Of phthisis tuberculosis.
IT CAME FROM A CONSERVATIVE PATIENT.
This bacillus was but one Of great many
that have been fouad and similarly imprisoned
under glass by DIR. Geddings as proof positive
that the dozen patients whom he is treating at
the hospital with the celebrated Koch's lymph
are afflicted with consumption. These are the
patients that were gathered here for the pur-
pose Of making thorough and careful test of
the celebrated remedy that was claimed TO be
cure for the terrible scourge that annually car
ries of such q large percentage of people.
When o number of small walls of the lymph
were received here through the courtesy of the
minister to Germany the President sent q
couple Of them to DIR. Ham-itbl, surgeon gen.
srai Of the marine hospital service, for the pur
Il
Of the discovery regarded consumption pure
and simple. Cases of lupus had been so fire.
quently cured that there no longer remained
any doubt of the efficiency of the lymph in that
disease. but there had been grave suspicious
thrown upon the efficacy of the material when
well-developed cases of consumption were at
tackled.
TEN CASES SELECTED.
Ten cases of phthisis pulmonaris were Sc
lected with great care. Six of them came
from the Marine Hospital at Baltimore from
among the sailor patients there and four others
were found in this city One OF them was
woman. AL of them were in the first stage of
the disease. or the stage Of consolidation, tine
stage in which the lymph is supposed to have
the most favorable effect 1t was thought that
if favorable result could be obtained in this
stage there would be demonstration at least
that there was some modioum of virtue in the
remedy, and there would be given a safeguard
that might ultimately be used to prevent the
development of the disease into tire more adj
yanced stages, where it is less manageable.
II was the intention to take only such cases
as had no signs OF too rapid advancement, but
In one of them-that of Morgan, whose death
was related in these columns some days ago-a
mistake was made. caused by the inaccurate
,tatements of the man himself. who misrepre-
senfed his true condition IN order to be selected,
~ eager was he TO be treated with the lymph.
ALL CAREFULLY EXAMINED.
A the had hoo, labr lei
Installed in the wards of the Providence Hos
pital they were examined thoroughly, weighed
and sounded. This last operation is simply a
systematic tapping of the chest in order to as
certain the area of the lungs that Is dUlled by
the disease. A small automatic rubber ham
mer Is used and every inch of the chest cover
ing the lungs IS carefully gone over. Only
trained ear, accustomed 10 the treatment of the
disease, il able to do accurately work OF detect
ing the sounds of disease and the greatest pains
are taken to insure the most accurate results.
As fast as the rubber hammer pointed out a
dullness in the chest the area thus detected was
marked out OF the surface of the skin by iodine
which left large small irregular stain of
brown TO show the inroaGs Of the disease. Thus
was the consumption mapped out on the patient
at the beginning, and a start was made in the
work Of ascerIalning whether or not the appli-
cation Of The remedy had effect
THE AREA OF DISEASE.
These brown spots were odd in their shape,
their uniformity and their singular similarity,
and yet their odd irregularity. No two of them
were exactly alike. No two of them covered
exactly the same amount of space. No two of
them were of the same shape, yet there was a
striking symmetry about them that showed GER
tain peculiar laws in the development of the
disease that have not vet been mastered. Some
were exact squares. Yet Of unequal size, on the
two sides Of the patients chest. In some cases
the spot appeared only on one side, but in the
most there were Two spots, to show that the dis
ease had gone into both lungs. and always at
the top The general shape of the lung seemed
TO be followed, widening as a rule. downward.
In one instance the two marks seemed to form
continuation of each other. while in others
they were quite distinct in their relations.
As soon as the patients were thus spotted as
II were, they were photographed by DR.. Ged-
disgs, who Is quite an expert knight of the
camera The negatives of these photographs
were carefully marked with the name OF the
the records The areas of dizziness showed in
the reversed shades Of the negative as a light
spot
THE INJECTIONS OF LYMPH.
The injections Of the lymph were begun on
the I'd day Of January. They were very small
~ first, only one milligram, but they pro-
duced the most decided reactions. For the
earliest injections a regulation Koch's syringe
was used, this being advised by the circular
sent around each bottle or vial Of the remedy
It's main advantage, so il was claimed, was that
IL could be perfectly sterilized before each use
or ridded Of noxious and dangerous air germs
that might cause the formation OF Assesses
around the point Of injection. This claim was
found to be well founded. but the syringe was
soon seen 10 be cumbersome and unce rtain in
its delivery OF the diluted remedy. II was COM
posed merely Of glass barrel pointed with a
hollow needle Graduated marks on the glass
tube served to regulate the DOSE which was
forced through the needle by a rough looking
hollow bail Of rubber with a small hole in. the
top just as long as the finger was held over
this hole the flow was even, but when the ball
was pressed downward the flexible rubber
caused the hole 10 slip away from the finger
and admit the air. and the fluid was caused to
drop out instead of going in a steady stream.
For this reason kochs syringe was ADAM
doned and an ordinary hypOdermic syringe
was substituted, which Is steriiized after each
use by being totally immersed in alcohol for
an hour "
WHERE THEY WERE MADE
The injections were made through the skin
Of the upper back, between the shoulder
blades, and so carefully have they been per-
formed that, although there have been upward
o: I'D made, there has not been a sore
or an abcess formed in the locality in any of
the Cases There was a small red spot to be
seen Immediately after the withdrawal of the
needle. which inhamed trife. but which
faded away to q black point within twelve