The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-12-18
new CONSUMPTION
CURE DISCOVERED
Professor Won Behring Of Der
lin Believes He VIII Do Away
With the Disease.
a PUPIL OF PROF. kOCH'S
He Maintains That in the Vast Major
ity of Cases tho Bacillus is inef-
fectual and in Any Sense
Not Dangerous.

almost completed his experiments as to
the best methods of using the serum
for the relief of suffering humanity.
His theories are dramatically opposed
to those of Professor Koch, of Berlin,
whose pupil he formerly was.
Professor Won Behring believes that
the germs OF tuberculosis are taken in
to the system in infancy through the
porous membrane Of the 1ntest1nes;
that consumption Is essentially the
same in cattle as in mankind, n that
the disease appears in individuals who
have carried the germs in their sys-
TENS for years and is developed as a
result of some unusual strain or expo
sure. He says hat consumptives
should be segregated as consumptiYes
were in the middle ages.
Professor Won Behring has become
the medical celebrity of the hour. EV-
cry physician throughout the civilized
world Is speaking of the comparatively
young Marburg professor. Ihey know
his name for years as the brilliant in
vestigator who discovered the dlph-
liberia serum, but now they know aim
as the man who in all probability will
revolutionize the treatment Of con-
sumption which has held the field for
the past twenty years.
Conflicts with His Teaching.
Won Behring's new theories bring
him into direct conflict with the school
in which he himself was reared. He is
81 scholar Of Koch, an independent
scholar, and he employs, like his mas
ter, exclusively experimental methods.
But his doctrines set him on the other
extreme from Koch. 1t is necessary
here to sketch Koch's theories in order
that the new doctrine may be better
understood.
According to Koch the origin and
cause of tuberculosis is the bacillus
which he was the first to discover. The
most prevalent Of this illness in men
Is tuberculosis of the lungs or con-
sumption. The disease is caused by
the breathing indirectly on the lungs
of the tuberculosis bacillus. For this
reason, therefore,, the chief source of
the disease is the approximations or
other Overthrow" as the Germans call
it, of diseased persons. tuberculosis
in men and cattle is not identical. The
bacillus of cattle Tuberculosis does not
infect men, and the reception of bacil-
lus-infected milk INTO the bowels of
men is not dangerous for men. Koch
maintains hat the disease can be COM
bated by combating the poisonous
virus. His remedies, therefore, are
isolation of the patient and the de-
struction of the =" overthrow" No
measures are necessary, therefore,
against bacillus-contalning foods In
Berlin and in London Koch defended
this theory. In a word, he made con-
SUMPTION an infectious QlSeaSe, ana
only the diseased person was to be
considered.
These views OF Koch, here roughly
sketched, were hotly contested in sew
eral quarters, and the opposition to
them grew in force and cogency, and
when Behring came forward with his
doctrine Koch's star rapidly sank. Beh-
ring casts on one side every doctrine
identified with KoCh's name. He main
tains tina Koch is wrong root and
branch, and places himself beside those
older investigators who combated
Koch's contagion theories, and goes
ever further than they Gid. Behring
admits that the tuberculosis bacillus
is the origin Of the disease, but its en-
trance into the human organism need
not be necessarily followed by the
symptoms Of disease. He maintains
that in the vast majority OF cases the
bacillus is Intellectual and not in any
sense dangerous. Every man, woman
and child is in danger of receiving these
bacilli. but the danger is remote thai
this bacillus in itself will produce dis,
ease. Disease can only follow wher
there is receptivity or disposition tc
nourish the bacillus. According te
Behring, the source of the mischief lies
in the milk used by babies. In his
printed lecture he puts this statement
in italics. The danger of Infection, he
maintains, lies in this milk, whether i
Is the milk of the mother or the mill
of an animal. The bacillus is received
into the ordinary food channels, ant
from these it makes its way into the
tissues and the other organs, especially
into the lungs.
With regard to the combating Of the
disease Behring is equally at complete
variance with Koch. His method Of
fighting diphtheria illustrates his meth.
cd with regard to consumption. Beh'
ring says that the diphtheria bacillu:
Is so general, so widespread, that Their
is practically no escaping it, but dis
ease only ensues where there is recep,
tivity or individual predisposition t.
nourish the bacillus. The attempt
therefore, to destroy the bacillus by
isolation, distinction or other similal
means is hopeless and superfiuous la.
Dor.
Believes in ~lmmunizing.
Behring is not to join the army OF
bacillus hunters. His method consists
rather in the i"mInunizing of the threat,
ened person and in the treatment Of
the patient with the assistance Of hi.
serum. And SO with tuberculosis. TIL
destruction of the bacillus is lost labor
and the isolation methods used for pa
tients In thickly peopled districts OF
towns are useless. He even goes SO fal
as to say that the consumption home.
will disappear as soon as better meth,
OQS nave Deen adopted. lie mas sue
ceeded, just as Venner succeeded will
his smallpox Investigations, in making
cattle immune against experimental
and accidental infection from tubercu
losis. The adoption of these method.
in the case of babies, is perhaps no
possible, owing to the possible danger
but he believes that the time is ap.
preaching when we will be able tt
nourish those babies by milk from i'm,
munized cattle, or TO feed them with {
suitable tuberculosis poison which viii
be as effective as direct in%oculation
This is a startling doctrine and it il
quite impossible to reconcile it will
Koch's theories. He combats the en-
tire theory of %contagion and lays spe
cial emphasis on predisposition, or OF
outside influences, like unsanitar.
dwellings, other diseases, insufficient
nutriment, undue labor, etc. He will
not emove the bacillus, he will re
move that which makes the bacillu.
active.
Koch is probably the greatest. absaery
---srnthat-uveT~ We the most patient
metnodic, honest observer: but whel
he comes to sum up his observations hi