The San Francisco call., 1897-12-25
KUHLMAN'S
WAR CRY
ANSWERED
DR.. Buckley Sharpens
His Hatchet for
Hirschfelder.
Alleges Michael Foley
Died Of Oxytoxine
Poisoning.
Coroner Thinks the CHARGE Is
Causeless and Will Not
Investigate.
A SOURCE OF AMUSEMENT
Record OF the Case Shows the De-
ceased Could Have Had No
Hope OF Life.

While the redoubtable Dr. Kuhlman
is doing his best to make trouble for
DR.. Joseph o. Hirschfelder within the
confines of the County Medical Society,
others are on the outside mastering
the forces of war against the man who
has had the temerity to come forward
with the assertion that oxytuberculin
is a cure for consumption, ''if taken in
time" Dr. c. F. Buckley is the one
who is the hottest on the warpath at
present, and believes that chance has
thrown into his hands a valuable
weapon in the decease of Michael F'o-
ley, contractor residing at 1870 Jessie
street.
Foley has been a sufferer from pull
monary complaint for two or three
years past, and finally succumbed to
the malady on Wednesday last DR..
Buckley has been treating him for the
last two or three weeks, and at the
time of death signed the death certifi-
cate, giving that remote cause of death
as phthisis pulmonalis and the immedi-
ate cause as 'oXytoXine poisoning" To
make the matter more impressive he
wrote on the certificate these words:
Coroner" Very naturally the Board of
Health called the attention of the Cor
oner to the matter, but it is not proba-
BILE that much attention will be paid to
the case by that official
In the Pacific Medical Journal of
June last DIR. Buckley wrote an article
directed against the use of oxytuber-
culin, in which he called it bad veal
broth" In the current issue he has
another, in which the case of a pa
tient of his is mentioned who is alleged
to have been treated by DR.. Hirsch-
fielder for five weeks and to have lost
five pounds while undergoing the treat
ment, according to the fathers scales,
though DR.. Hirschfelder is said to have
claimed that the boy was gaining
weight at the rate of from one to ore
and a half pounds per week. When
Foley died that became a golden Oppor-
tunity to clinch matters, so DR.. Buck
ley evidently thought, for he proceeded
to call the attention of the Coroner to
the case. Yesterday he said:
Foley was DR.. HirSchfelderS pa
tient for three weeks. 1 have prescribed
for him for the last two weeks During
that time he had all the symptoms of
irritant poisoning and none whatever
of phthisis. The man really died of ex-
haustion, and it was the use of the
responsible for his condition"
Following his usual course, Dr.
Hirschfelder refuses to enter into a
discussion of the matter in the public
print, so far as the charges made
against him by DR.. Buckley is con-
cerned. In fact, he seemed rather
amused than otherwise at what had
been said and done.
''All l will say" he declared 'is to
give a statement of tho r1oan'c
tion to show the utter absurdity of the
charge My record shows that he came
for treatment on November 2, and dis
continued it on November 26 When
first examined he admitted that he had
been short Of breath for two years and
had had four hemorrhages. His weight
in health was given at 160 pounds, and
at that time he weighed only 1291s.
There were large cavities in both lungs
and the case was so exceedingly bad
that the man was short of breath even
when at rest. The sputum contained
large quantities of the bacilli of tuber-
culosis. His temperature registered 103
degrees.
Il told the man he was in the last
stages and that there was no chance at
all for him, but he begged for treat
ment and was given it. Under treat
ment his fever diminished so that only
once did it rise as high as 102. Usually
it did not go over 1904, and was at
times still lower"
The Coroner has signed the certificate
of burial and will pay no attention to
the protest. But DR.. Buckley still be-
lieves that Foley died of ''irritant pois-
| oning," and DIR. Kuhlman is prepared
to carry the fight on within the Medi-
cal Society. 1t is, after all, merely
case of the doctors differing Whether
any of the combatants will acquire tu-
berculoss from a wasting of the tissues
and weakening of the constitution, due
to the prolonged struggle, and find him
self in need of oXytuberculin at So a
bottle, mayhap only to perish misera-
bly, of exhaustion caused by 'irri-
tant poisoning" is still a moot ques-
| tion with the laymen.