Evening star., 1901-08-10
TX O C H CRITICS ED
HE Is CHARGED WITH HAVING LOST
THE CAUTION OF THE SCIENTIST.
His Assertions of Fact Are Questioned
The Discovery Not Original
with Him.

L no CaDle reports tHat fTOI hoCtl u Del
lin has presented a communication to the
British congress Of tuberculosis, assert
ing the absolute non-identity of human
and bovine tuberculosis. He asserts. II is
reported. that he has been unable to induce
tuberculosis in animals by incubation
with human tubercle bacilli and concludes
from that that animal tuberculosis is not
communicable to man. The most impor-
tant deduction from this fact, IL It were
fact, would be that there was no danger to
man from tuberculous cattle, and that the
feeding of milk from such diseased AMI
mails to babies would be harmless.
His Standing as q Scientist.
It is pity that Koch's true standing as
scientist is not SO well appreciated by
the public as 1t Is by the medical world.
for with the belief in his authority still
extant among the laity the publication OF
these views may do Infinite harm. How
great this harm may be. if Koch Is wrong.
can be judged by the headlines in the
Herald announcing the alleged discovery:
prof. Koch's New Discovery-Bovine Tu-
berculosis not Transmissible to Man and
Very Genera! Fear Unfounded-No Harm to
Use Milk or Meat-Diet From Infected Cat
tie the German Bacterfologist, Holds
Can Be Consumed With Impunity." OF
course, we cannot discuss kOch's paper
from the imperfect abstracts of 1t cabled
to this country, but we are justified in two
comments upon it. In the first place, Rob
ert Koch is not the authority he gave
promise of being earlier in his career, and
any assertion which he may choose to
make simply because he has made 1t. The
keen striving after exactness of the SCENT
fst has been dulfed in him more or less, as
was shown in the matter of tuberculin and
Of T. R., and in that of his assertions re-
garding malaria. He has lost the caution
OF the real scientist and has put on the
assumption fthe cock-suredness. we are
tempted to say of the poseur- He asserts
with positiveness what men like Adami
and Theobald Smith suggest with caution.
Discovery Not Original.
And this leads us to the second remark
We have to make on this publication. This
alleged discovery OF Koch is not original
with him, any more than was that OF the
agency Of the tick in the spread of Texas
fever. He was preceded in the latter by
Theobald Smith. and he is preceded In the
former by the same investigator. In FS'S
Smith presented a communication to the
Association OF American Physicians, in
which he detailed a number of experiments
showing marked differences between the
culosis. These differences were morpho-
logical. cultural, and in the results of in
oculation. and were sufficient to warrant
the belief that the two diseases were dis
Sputum bacilli, he said, cannot gain lodg-
ment in cattle through the ordinary chan
nels, but. owing to the impossfbiity OF
making incubation experiments in the re-
verse order, from cattle to man, the ques-
tion of the transmission Of bovine bacilli
to the human must, for the present, re-
main undetermined. However, Influenced
apparently by the few seemingly indubit
able instances Of the transmission of tuber-
culosis from animals to man, he expressed
the opinion that 'the occasional entrance
of bovine bacilll into the human body might
open the way for the Introduction of q
virus OF higher level" Adami. also.
while not denying the possibility, and. In
deed. arguing that it should be accepted
for prudential reasons. yet admits that the
evidence Of direct transmission from ami
mails to man "is singularly slight" 9th
ers, among whom are Frank 8. Billings
and Edward Moore-two acute observers
who have enjoyed exceptional facilities for
the study Of bovine tuberculosis-deny that
man Is susceptible to this disease.
Unprofessional and Perhaps Harmful.
This question, from It's very nature, is a
difficult one to solve, but It Is Of the great
est Importance, economical as well as nos
illogical, and 1t must be determined abb
solutely within a very short time. If the
assertion Of Koch shall have the effect
Of shaking the firm belief to the contrary.
which Is now held by the vast majority OF
the medical profession, and of squirting on
to greater efforts and more searching In
vestigation the few who are at present
studying the subject, it will have served
q useful purpose But Ii Is unfortunate
that he should have communicated it
prematurely to- reporters of the secular
press, and so gained the wide audience of
an fmpressionable laity before he pre-
sented 1t to the scientific body to which
he was accredited. 1t was unprofesslonal
and may be productive Of incalculable
harm.