The evening times., 1895-09-07
lot uDoRsED By SCIENCE
Consul caaneeusi Dissrsdlts ths lev
Consumption Cure.
It's Efficacy 70 Not Proven and MARI
ellano Surrounds 1t With Much
Mystery and Secrecy.

G. W. Chancellor. United States consul al
Havre. France. has sent q report to the
State department concerning the Congress
OF Physicians and Scientists recently held
at Bordeaux to consider the question oi
combating consumption by the vaccine
de la tuberculose.
Prof. Mangliano. an Italian savant. read
a paper at the congress which has attracted
considerable attention, especially among
the general public. Heclaims to have discov.
cred an efficacious process for the treatment
ofconsumption by the injection of tuberculaI
serum. which. he says. renders the subjects
of this most formidable and fatal Of all NAL
aides immune
"The paper has naturally excited great
interest in the scientific world" says Mr.
Chancellor, but In view of the signal fall
ure, only few years ago. of Koch's in
occuistIon method for the cure OF tubercu-
lous LESSONS. coupled with the some what
negative results after extensive expert
ments with DR.. Rouk's serum treatment
for diphtheria, 1t must be admitted that
IL would Eot be quite safe at present to
pronounce definitely upon the value of
this new process for the cure Of consump-
ton, though introduced by one OF such
high standing in the profession sDr Marig-
liano.
His experiments will no doubt open a
new era in the history of curative methods,
and may ultimately make 1t possible 10
modify or control the tuberculous dys-
crasia, and 10 this extent they are certainly
valuable; but thus far the method can
only be considered tentative. The effects
are still in the experimental stage"
1.-THE great mortality from the disease
accounts for the willingness with which
thousands of consumptive inyaIids sub
mit themselves TO this. or indeed, any
process of treatment which offers the re-
motest possibility of immunity or ameliora-
ton.
Recent statistics show that in the city
of Paris and the department of the Seine
consumption has caused thirty eight times
more deaths than smallpox and scarlet
fever combined: sixteen times more than
typhoid fever, and eight times more than
diphtheria. 1t has also been demonstrated
by statistics above mentioned pulmonary
consumption is five times more fatai than
the other named maladies united
.And what is true of Paris and the
department of the Seine is also true Of
other European countries From 1889 TO
1894 inclusive. period of five years, the
average annual mortality from tuberculosis
was $40 per 100000 Inhabitants; in
Buda Pesth, 546 per 100, 900, and in the
whole of France, during the same period,
there were 400 deaths from consumption
per 100000 of population, greater NOR
taiity than that caused by the most malig
nant epideniics of cholera.
''UDder such nnpromsing circumstances it
Is not surprising that sufferers from the
disease should seek biiDdly any medium that
holds out the slightest prospect of relief
AS matter of fact DR.. MariglaDo's paper
is open to several objections, and his lin
fallible cure cannot be yet regarded as an
accomplished fact
''The first objection is that he gives no
precise Information concerning the process
Of obtaining the serum, and it can only be
had through him personally; and in the Sec
oDd place his statistics are incomplete and
uBsa tbs factory, and withal lack con-
firma ton. 1t would be well, therefore, for
our couDtrymen, who may be disposed to
give the remedy trial, to remember DR..
Koch's lamentabIe failure in the same di-
rectioD a few years ago, and wait until
the remedy has been duly tested by other
physicians than the inventor"