The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-04-01
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE "KocH CURE" AND THE
"GEORGE CURE"

thusiasm, or been followed with such
absorbing interest by the whole world,
as that comprised in the announcement
of Robert Koch that he had been able
to produce a substance capable of ex-
erting marked influence upon the
changes which the tuberculosis bacillus
causes in the tissues of the body. Com
ing from SO eminent an authority, men
felt that one of those. great discoveries,
calculated to exert a profoundly modi
flying influence upon humanity, had at
least been outlined. For the true inn
portance of Koch's discovery lies not so
much in its application to tuberculosis
alone, as in the fact that it is pregnant
with suggestive possibilities of the cure
of all infectious diseases by analogous
methods.
1t is true, the great hopes Of cure
for consumption in all its stages, that
perhaps the majority of laymen, at
least, allowed themselves to entertain,
have as yet by no means been realized.
The number of actual cures is, in fact,
so exceedingly limited, that at this
early stage, we are hardly justified in
admitting their existence at all. New
ertheless, all mankind feels happier in
the thought that a new way appears to
be opening for combating the greatest
scourge of modern life. For the su-
preme interest of the discovery lies,
after all, in its humane aspects: in the
contemplation of the picture of it's
wide-reaching effects upon society, and
in the thought that suffering is to be-
come less, that at least one form of
disease is to be banished, that life is
thus to be made more sure, and that the
sum of human happiness is so to be in
creased.
But supposing that the "Koch cure''
were really all that the most vivid hope
imagined it, would all these results fol-
low? In certain measure they would,
but the increase in general well-being
would be insignifcantly small when
measured by the greatness of the dis
covery. Just as none of the great in
ventions for the saving of labor have
really made toll any lighter or in
creased, for the masses the ease of MAX
ing living, SO this discovery would do
practically nothing to make the lot OF
that greater portion of mankind, which
forms the army of labor, any easier or
sweeter. Indeed, the contrary would
be the result, for that increase in popu-
lation which results when mortality is
from any cause checked, inevitably be-
gets fercer competition among labor
ers for the chance to work, and, as re-
suit, wages fall, while the value of land,
upon which alone labor can be per-
formed, necessarily rises Hence the
economic effects of Koch's discovery,
should it prove efficacious, would be to
increase that poverty which is the lot
of maryland which forms the hot-bed
of all contagious disease-while it
would, at the same time, add to the
wealth of the relatively few who own
the field of labor. 1t would, like all
great inventions, but tend to make the
poor poorer, and the rich richer; to i'm.
poverish the land user and enrich the
landlord.
1t is sad comment upon our civiliza.
ton that the pestilence that walketh in
darkness and the destruction that
wasteth at monday, by reducing the
number of his competitors, are the
friends of him who has but his labor te
sell. Had we but Malthus, to fall back
upon the thought of this paradox-th
the blessing of health is really curse
would be horrible indeed, but the
genius of the century has bid us not de
spair, and has shown that the direst o1
all diseases poverty, itself the fruitful
parent of diseases not an ineradi
cable of social growth, but is the out
come Of social malajustments inflicted
by man upon himself.
For it is to poverty, that in the las
analysis, we must trace the most potent
predisposing and maintaining cause o.
infectious disease. And if any thing
radical is ever to be done toward limit
ing the spread of those diseases. which
as every physician recognizes, are il
their nature preventable, surely The
remedy must be applied, not SO much tx
the disease itself as it appears in the in
dfvidual, as to the cause that engender!
it. OF what real use would it be, fo
instance, to examine for diphtheria, a.
has been recently proposed by well
known physician of this city, tn,
throats of all the public school children
each morning, when the source of tn,
evil stream-the crowded tenement
house-still remains unchecked. And
measured by the immensity of the evil
seeks to lessen, what pitiful waste of en-
ergy and money does it not seem-wha
ridiculous contradiction does it not in
volve-to take little children in summe
from the slums to the seaside, in tn
hope Of saving few of the thousand
that society annually kills, only to re
turn them to the very conditions tina
cause their illness. Of what use, t.
tinker with the effects, and leave tn
cause untouched? Such measures ar
like attempting to dip out the oceal
with teaspoon.
Boards of health may be vigilant, doc
tors may be faithful and learned, med
ical and other charities may be deal
out with a lavish hand; but in a cit
where three-quarters of the population
live in tenements, where 300, 200 peopl
are packed upon one square mile, wher
but four per cent occupy separat
homes, it is folly to think of curing-i
the sense OF exterminating-any diseas
which is contagious.
In looking toward the ultimate cur
OF tuberculosis, we thus inevitably al
rive at point wher" the medical aspet
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