The Press., 1893-03-09
PROF. KOCH'S TUBERcULIN
As Means of Cure in Tuberculosis.

A paper read before the Connecticut Medical so-
 ciety by its president, c. B. NEWTON, M. D., of
 Stafford Springs.
 This is fitting occasion, to take in re- view what has been discovered during this century of remedial agents; from the past work of the fathers of medicine. We exult in the reflection, that to our state and brotherhood belong the honor of having introduced to the world the in- estimable blessing of anesthesia. In the discovery of greatly improved methods of treating surgical diseases and trauma- tisms, in no generation in history is re- corded so great advance. In fact they may be said to have been brought out within our glorious time and accepted as the standard theory and practice of to- day. The antisepsis of Prof. Lister, the anesthesia of Dr. Horace Wells of our state, whose name is more imperishable than granite, have inspired us with ven- ture to give surgical aid to the very seat of life.
 Before anesthesia and antisepsis it nev- CT occurred to the surgeon in his most hopeful dreams, that portions of the vital parts of man could be excised and the parts so capted as to completely restore their function. With fear and pain oblit- erated in anesthetic sleep, the surgeon guides his knife with a deliperation and caution of one who holds the life in his hand, while antisepsis guards the wound from septic harm.
 In another field, the most important scientific investigations into the nature, causation and treatment of tubercle have of tubercle is Ia feeble and miserable neoplasm incapable of organization" or rather he says, "tubercle is fibro gaseous neoplasm of nodular form characteristic of a disease known as tuberculosis"
 He states how essential it is that the relations of the various organisms to one another should be discovered.
 He believes it possible by domestica- tion, using his expression, to change the nature of certain of these organisms, and describes recent experiments. It is claim ed that micro-organisms may be generated by decaying tissues. Also that scientists find an uncertainty in distinguishing one micro germ from another in their outline under different conditions. The import ant fact of to-day is, that some of the in sidious poisons, having their origin either within or without the body, have been de. fined and individualized through exhaust i've biological studies by our own and Flu ropean scholars. They have made great progress in classification upon scientific basis by which all scholars may be able successfully to pursue the study of bac teriology.
 A most familiar example of rapid eel formations is observed in the culture me- diums of saccharine fluids containing al Luminous matter Under the microscope they are found to be aggregations of ovoid cells, classified as vegetable and knowr as yeast cells. A prototype of cell forma | tion in other cultures, a power of self production, the forming of new eel growth, protoplasm or basis of life, al organized ferment growing and multiply | ing at the expense and metamorphosis o the substances on which they act. It ap pears from comparison of the research es of Lavoisier, Seguin, Valentine anc other observers, that water is discharged from the system in proportion of thirty per cent, by cutaneous precipitation, ant brings with it various ingredients absorb ed from the glandular organs.
 The eliminating action of the skin is modified in various diseases. It is modi fled and affected also by habit, by exer else, by sudden alterations of temperature and humidity. The secretion of the su doriferous glands holds in solution upo1 the skin sodium salts, potassic chloride, and traces of alkaline phosphates. Thei re-absorption by the skin must have toxic and harmful effect, as illustrated b, the we'll known phenomena of a cold. May not the suppression and re-absorp tion of these waste materials, which ii the office of the skin to eliminate, giv
 origin to the abnormal tubercle, who's
 habitat is the apex of the lungs.
 May not these astrayed and harmful ma
 terials, which have found their way bacl
 into the absorbent vessels and the blood
 become the embryo and foci of tn
 tubeacle nodule, primarily invisible to tn
 eye and become focus of infiammatio
 and the home, if not the origin of the tu
 bercle bacillus. Reinhart showed tha ] these cells could be found in all product
 of chronic inflammation, and their pres ence was only an evidence that certai
 amount of inflammation existed. Colber
 asserts that tubercles in the lungs orig
 nate from the capillary vessels and tn
 connective tissue.
 Bastian observed tubercle nodules upo
 the small vessels in cases of meningitis
 Knauff looks upon lymphoid structures g
 the starting point of tubercular inflamm, tion. Klebs maintains that the cells lymphatic vessels are the most frequel
 location of the primary tubercle. Rint
 heisch traces the beginning in militar tuberculosis to the capillary lymphat
 vessels.
 Professor Senn, of Milwaukee, says
 "When we speak of tubercle, we mean : granule which is composed of leucocyte ? derived from the capillary vessels dan e aged by the bacillus of tuberculosis; thu
 one of nature's means in preventing tl n local extension of tubercle and in guar' V ing against general infection is calcific r tion of the tubercular product; that tn implies the removal of the cheesy mate l al and the substitution for it of morgan Il calcareous material"
 l. Whatever may be the origin of the t bercle bacilli, it would seem quite poss