Sunday Washington globe., 1902-01-26

is chafug under the restraint of the regular
medical profession, which prohibits its mem.
bers advertising in the newspapers. He
has devised a method, he thinks. whichwill
enable him to escape the assifcation Of
"quack, " and which WILL in the meantime,
afford an opportunity to let the world know
that he is great physician. The method
adopted by DR.. Barney is the fakir one Of
iuoculating lady with the tuberculosis of
COW, declaring that il took, and that the
lady would have died Of consumption if his
great skill had not saved her II will be
understood, of course, that DR.. Barney set
himself up to dispute the great Germans
theory that the bacill in the tuberculosis
of cattle was not the same as in the human
species DR.. Koch demonstrated that the
bacilli was different and that human beings
could not be infected by the bacilli of cattle
tuberculosis This was a far-reaching dis
covery of the German investigator as mil
lions of dollars worth of cattle, hogs etc,
were being annually slaughtered when dis
covered to be infected with tuberculosis to
prevent the contagon from injecting hu-
man beings.
The milk trust, which the GLOBE has been
airing for some time with the assistance of
Citizen Magll, was completely knocked out
by Professor Koch's announcement The
trust has, however got its second wind,
and DR.. Barney, an obscure Booklyu pill
peddler is put up against the great Koch.
That the Brooklyn doctor is not taken
seriously, however, by the medical profes-
sion either in Washington or elsewhere
goes without saying, and the German pro.
fessors declaration still stands as the ac-
cepted theory by all educated and regular
physicians.
DR.. d. +. Salmon, chief of the Bureau of
Animal Industry, who has made a special
study of animal diseases and is the author
of bulletin designed to refute the theory
of Koch that tuberculosis is not transfer
rable from cattle to humankind, says that
he did not think Dr. Barney had sufficient
grounds for his statements.
In the first place, " said Dr. Salmon, ii
was a criminal act to inoculate the girl with
tuberculosis at all. Then it appears from
the doctors own statement that the animal
from which the girl was inoculated did not
have bovine, but human, tuberculosis.
The doctor says that he inoculated a
healthy COW with bacilli from two Of his
patients in the last stages. Then he says
after the COW developed tuberculosis he
inoculaied the girl with germs from the
COW. II looks as IL Dr. Barney's expert
ments had been undertaken with the OBJ
ject Of advertising his cure for tuberculosis.
Scientists will not accept any proof of the
fasity of DR.. Koch 8 theory which rests on
such grounds"
Whereat the milk trust mourneth and
will now proceed to DAM DR.. Barney's flow
of medical wisdom on bovine and human
tuberculosis.
In July last before the British congress
on tuberculosis Professor Robert Koch de-
livered his remarkable lecture on the re-
suits OF his experiments with the bacilli of
the bovine and human tuberculosis
The scientist who had first told the world
of the tubercle bacillus, who taught the
means of distinguishing the deadly bacillus
in animal and in man, whose revelations
led to the stringent laws for the prevention
of the spread Of the great white plague"
and resulted in the condemnation of hun
dreds of thousands of animals for fear of
the spread of the disease from them to man,
declared that experiments had satisfied him
that cattle could not be infected with
human tuberculosis
The counter proposition, that human be-
ings we're not liable TO infection from bo-
vine tuberculosis, was harder to prove, said
DR.. Koch, owing to tile difficulty Of expert
mentiug on human subjects, but that per-
sonally, he was satisfied such was the case,
and he recited at length post-mOrtem evil
dence supporting this belief
DR.. Koch said if this point were conceded
1t remained to determine the chief source
OF contagion Continuing, he said human
immunity to bovine infection disposed of
the belief of infection through dairy pro-
ducts, and he considered this source of
danger so slight as to be unworthy of pre-.
cautonary measures.
Hereditary was also an unimportant factor
in the transmission of tuberculosis, said the
doctor, though the contrary had long been
believed
DR.. Koch said the chief source of danger
of contagiou lay in the sputum Of consump.
tive patients, and that a remedy was to be
found in law preventing the consumptive
from strewing contagiou about him.
Several methods 20 this end we're available,
the surest of which being isolated in sani-
tauums. This unfortunately, was imprac
ticable, but he strongly urged the estab-
lishment of special cOnsumptive hospitals
and the obligatory notification Of the au-
thoiities of the existence Of the disease the
disinfection of their quarters whenever
consumptives changed their residences, and'|
the disseminat Of information to the
people concerning the true nature of CON
sumption to aid in avoiding and combating
IT,
DR.. Koch highly complimeuted DR.. Her
mann M. Biggs, pathologist and director Of
the psychological laboratories of the New
York City Health Department upon the re-
pressive measures concerning tuberculosis
taken in New York city, where, he said,
the mortality from tuberculosis had been
reduced IS per cent since 1886, aud recon-
mendeu the system organized by DR. Biggs
in New York to the study and imitation Of
all municipalities
Dr. Koch closed his remarks by express
ing his belief that the ultimate stamping
out Of tuberculosis was possible.
Professor Koch's announcement Is one Of
the most encouraging notes sounded by
medical authorities ia many years. II the
learned professors deductions prove cor
rect many millions Of dollars may be saved
many restrictions on American cattle may
be removed