The morning call., 1891-01-17
THE Koch RENEDY.

DR.. K8ch's explanation of his remedy for
consumption is so abstruSe and so profusely
larded with scientific terms that to the pub
lie at large it will cOnvey little information.
Translated into plain English, it appears to
be an application to phthisis of the funda-
mental principle of homeopathy; that is to
say, DR.. Koch proposes to cure consump-
ton by the exhibition in a dilute form of a
drug which in a larger dose would cause
that same disease in healthy person. lie
aims at checking tubercular deposit by in-
oculating the patient with the essence or
extract OF the tubercular bacilIi which cause
The deposit
He cultvates tubercle bacilli. and ex-
tracts from them their essence. With d.
luted form of this extract he inoculates his
patients. The effect of the incubation is
to cause necrosis of the parts already in
fected with tubercle; they die and slough
off, carrying with them the bacilli which
they contained. and which disappear from
the impossibility of maintaining life in the
dead tissues. Those portions of the lung
which are honeycombed with tubercular
cells in the consumptiye pass away, and the
result is the restoration OF health.
We are aware that this explanation will
| strike the reader as unsatisfactory. Per
| haps it may be unfair TO the doctor to Judge
! him by the brief account of his method
which was telegraphed across the ocean on
! Thursday, was translated into another Ian
| guage, and now appears with possible mis-
| prints. and errors of copyists and teleg-
| raphers. But If the statement published
| by the press IS exact the Koch remedy is
what we have described. BY administering
drug of extreme potency its author pro-
poses to kill the diseased tissues, in order
that they shall cease to furnish food for the
insect which caused the disease.
Happily for science, it will not devolve
upon laymen to pass Judgment on the mer-
its of the lymph. Every medical society in
| Christendom is now apprised of its constitu-
ent5. and almost every hospital is giving tia
| practical trial If it cures consumption, in
even moderate proportion of the cases, the
world will soon know the fact, and Dr.
Koch's service to humanity will be recog-
| Dized. II it effects no cures, that also will
| quickly be known, and the doctor will be
| chiefly remembered as one who labored hon
estly. though not as successfully as might
have been wished, to eradicate terrible
| disease. In either case, the reasoning of
! scientists on the philosophy of the proposed
method viii cut secondary figure.
Whether DR.. Koch has discovered cure
for consumption, or whether he has merely
made a step in the advancement of medical
science, it is interesting to observe that he
is treading in the path of the most iliustri-
GUS OF modern physicians, Samuel Hahne-
man. And this is the more remarkable as
the homeopathic school of medicine has
never obtained much recognition in the land
OF its birth-Ger many. 1t is ignored by the
German faculty, and its success in Great
Britain and France has been slight. In the
whole United Kingdom there are but a few
hundred doctors who practice homeopathy
| whereas in the United States much larger
| number OF physicians belong to that school,
Its Indifferent standing in Europe is proba-
bly, due, first, to the rdicule brought on
homeopathic practice by the infinitesimal
dose theory, and. secondly, to the appropri-
alton by the allopaths of the more valuable
discoveries of their rivals in therapeutics
If now Koch should make good his claim
that the way to cure consumption Is to in
oculate patients with the very bacilli which
cause death, il unmolested the doctrine of
similia smilibus will have to be accepted by
physicians, whether they will or not. Even
II. IN small proportion of cases, he should
demonstrate that his method will check in
cipient consumption, no medical man who
cares Tor practice or reputation will venture
hereafter to derlde the theories of the Or
canon, or of the supreme importance of the
study Of therapeutics in the treatment of
| disaasa