Consumption : how to get it, and how to get rid of it / by R.W. Philip.
- Edinburgh Health Society.
- Date:
- 1890
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Consumption : how to get it, and how to get rid of it / by R.W. Philip. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![magnifying power, it is easy to make out the presence in many instances of spores inside the rods—the spores being the seeds by means of which the reproduction of the organism is effected. The rods have the peculiar character of taking on and keeping cei’tain dyes or stains, wliich enables us to discover their presence more easily and certainly (and this love of colour was a most important aid to their detection). That you may realise on what a certain basis of observed fact this fatal property has been traced to the door of the tubercle bacillus, I must explain to you, in a word or two, how conclusive has been the evidence. Because you must thoroughly understand that the bacillus was not thus condemned unheard. Most able advo- cates were retained, who endeavoured to show by skilful reasoning, and by the suggestion of all possible theories, that the bacillus was innocent. The trial dragged out a more weary existence than that of the Tichbourne claimant or even the Parnell Commission, and yet the almost unanimous verdict of all who are in any sense called to be judges has been that of ''‘guilty as libelled.” And 1 wish to put the leading points of the evidence before you. Koch firstly, by an examination of some hundreds of cases, that the bacillus was present in every instance of consump- tion in the affected tissues or organs ; and I show photographic and coloured representations of the i-od-like bodies in (a) the lymphatic glands ; {h) the lungs ; and (c) the expectoration from a consumptive patient. Secondly, he showed that it was possible to grow the bacillus on certain soils outside the body, just as we can grow flowers and vegetables ; and by a careful and difiicult process of separation and weeding of the tares, it was found possible to attain a “ pure cultivation ” of the organism,—just as our gardeners may arrange beds of mignonette without any other flower or weed being present, the only difference being that the microscopic size of the little organisms makes the weeding process somewhat diflicult. I show you now jjhotographs of what we term “ jmre cultivations ” of the tubercle bacillus (w) in a test-tube, (6) on a flat plate. Thirdly, Koch showed that it is iiossible to induce consumption in healthy animals by inoculating them with a little piece taken from one of the pure cultivations to which I have referred. And lastlyproved the ])resence of thetubeicle](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21702421_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
