A paper on Koch's researches on tuberculosis, and abstract of a lecture on some of the more recent facts and observations concerning the bacillus of tubercle / by George A. Heron.

  • Heron, G. A. (George Allan), 1845-1915
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A paper on Koch's researches on tuberculosis, and abstract of a lecture on some of the more recent facts and observations concerning the bacillus of tubercle / by George A. Heron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    .work has been founded and built. In thinking over it, many questions will suggest themselves to the mind, and answers will be sought for them. If these answers rest upon facts, then only good can follow when medical men come to consider the questions and their answers. If, how¬ ever, mere personal opinion, founded upon merely personal bias, takes the place of facts, then we shall have discussions which will settle nothing and end nowhere. One question can hardly fail to be amongst the first to suggest itself— How does all this work of Koch’s fit in with the hereditary nature of tubercular phthisis? If there has been any fact established in medicine by the evidence of patients, and the practically unanimous opinion of physicians of all countries, it is certain that the hereditary tendency of tubercle has been so established. Of late, however, in Germany, in France, and in America, as well as in our own country, some men have expressed doubts as to the soundness of the evidence upon which rests the all but universal belief in the heredity of tubercle. Of course, this is a perfectly legitimate position, and besides that, it has been taken by men, some of whom are entitled, from their clinical experi¬ ence, to speak with authority upon the subject. Others have gone still further, and have denied the truth of the hereditary tendency of tubercular phthisis altogether. Koch does not fail to touch upon this point in his lecture. He takes up no definite position in connection with it, but simply indicates the opinion that we must have still further inquiry into this question. I think that, with his views, such an opinion is what might be expected from the man who has done such work as his. We cannot yet tell what light will be thrown upon disease by Koch’s great discovery. I call it a discovery, because whatever may be our attitude with regard to the bacillus of tubercle, it is true that Koch has shown us, in the presence of the bacillus in a certain type of disease, something which we did not know before. It is only seven months since this discovery was given to the medical world. No doubt, many men have been en¬ gaged, since last March, in studying the clinical bearing of the tubercle bacillus. To speak about establishing clinical facts concerning a subject such as this in seven months, would surely be to misuse words. I have, however, had the advantage not only of observing my own cases, but also of receiving from Dr. Bristowe a short statement of some of his observations in his wards in St. Thomas’s Hospital,