The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-11-28
sensation I'm Medical circles.

n. Macmillan Herzog, a young German
physician, has set the medical fraternity of
Milwaukee by the ears and has, incidental
ly, created a sensation in other circles. He
has been spending some time in the small
pox hospital there making investigations
and experiments, and announces as a re-
suit that a large percentage of the vaccine
points used in medical practice are spuri-
Gus having been dipped. not in genuine
virus, but in croton Oil or other local irri-
tant. He has made microscopic and chemi-
cal examinations of these points, n in
vites doubling physicians to make the same
tests. He is a believer in the efficacy of
proper vaccination and Is severe in his de-
nunciation OF the men who make the spuri-
Gus lymph. CLASSIFY them as scoundrels and
murderers.
DR.. Herzog also announces a germ theory,
or, rather. what he claims to be discovery,
which. If it is what he represents, must re-
suit in a revolution of ideas on this sub
ject. He holds that human disease is caused
by an active ferment in the blood by micro
organisms that have existed unsupported,
preying as parasites on the bacilli that the
most modern physicians think are the
causes of disease. These parasites. he says,
are amaeb5id bodies-the lowest forms of or
ganic life. They are of infinitesimal size and
have been, noticed by other microscopists
who concluded that there were spores
clinging to the bacilIi on their microscopic
slides. These cells. the doctor holds, are the
smallest cells in nature-he calls them pri-
mordial cells. He describes his experiments,
among them several with the blood Of tu-
berculous patients. IT have recognized in
it," he says, small round bodies, which 1
had before seen in tho milk of tuberculous
cows. When 1 saw them formerly 1 thought
they were spores of the tubercle bacillus,
but l know now that they are amaeboid
bodies living on top of the tubercle bacil-
lus as parasites, and they get into the
blood, into the milk and into the Offspring"
This is in direct opposition to Koch's theo-
ries, but Herzog is not abashed by this,
citing in his support Virchow and Petten-
koffer, two of the greatest medical men
hat ever lived" who have never believed
that the tubercle bacillus was the cause
of consumption. ne declares hat in his
study of the blood he has seen how the
white blood ~corpuscles eat of and kill the
disease organisms. and adds this encourag-
ing statement:
know now how a cure Is effected by ma
ture, and l have a plan how nature can be
IlClDCu III CfCll atSCdOCs Tx VI DIO-
fession will not be able to cure every dis
ease in a few months, but l know the day
is not far off when we will cure cancer,
when we will cure tuberculosis, as easy as
we can cure malaria, and a good deal east
err. Koch's tubercline is, in fact, a step in
the right direction. but the effective SUBJ
stance in Koch's lymph must be obtained
in a manner different from Koch's process.
All healing substances must be either OBJ
tanned like lymph is obtained from the
calf's body, or must be prepared in a vacu-
I'm, and not at temperatures which will so
change them chemically that they become
ineffective.
These scientific theories are matters con-
corning which the public at large can have
no intelligent Judgment. So far as 1T is con-
cerned, it makes no great difference wheth-
err bacilli prey on it's vitals, as 1T has re-
Gently been taught, or whether micro-or-
ganisms attack the bacilli and create dis
ease. 1t is hardly a relief to learn that
the bacillus is harmless only to be told in
the same breath that other parasites are
the true source of danger, especially as no
way of escape from these "amaeboid bod
les" is pointed out. All the public can do
is to permit itself to be experimental on
with what patience it may, in the hope
that. eventually, the true sources of their
ills will be discovered and with them a uni
versal panacea.