The interest in the new cure for tubercular affections grows from day to day both in the profession and among the laity. The clinical studies made in this city and elsewhere regarding the action of the remedy have been, so far as they were made known, published in the weekly medical journals and in the daily press.
Many conflicting reports abound concerning the results obtained in the treatment of tuberculosis of the lungs and the internal organs, and only time and further investigation will be able to place an exact a value upon the new treatment in these affections. In lupus, however, where the action of the lymph can be directly observed, some astonishing results have been obtained and a number of cures reported of long-standing cases of this affection.
J Cutan Genito-Urin Dis.
January 1891;9:39-40.
Treatment of Lupus with Koch's Lymph at the Hôpital St. Louis, Paris.—
The apprehensions to which I gave expression in my previous letter, as to the therapeutic effects of Koch's lymph in lupus, are, unfortunately, confirmed in every particular by the important communications which Messrs. Besnier and Hallopeau have made to the Society of Dermatology and Syphilography of Paris.
I. Communication of M. Le Dr. E. Besnier.—
The most important documents have been presented by Dr. E. Besnier, whose report constitutes a terrible arraignment of the method of Koch."As regards its curative effects, the action of the remedy, even repeated to tolerance, is insufficient to produce a cure in the immense majority of cases; it is neither superior nor even equal in its results to the procedures of ordinary treatment at present at our command."Even in cases where the danger does not attain such limits, the patient is always exposed to accidents grave and prolonged, particularly of the circulatory system, of the heart, the brain, and the kidneys, and to the unfortunate development of tubercular foci previously latent, and which might have remained latent had not the inoculation been practised."Under these conditions, I do not consider myself justified to continue an experiment of which I have accepted the full responsibility of its demonstration. But to-day my conviction is established. I do not believe thai any physician is justified in inoculating men with the extracts of the toxines of tuberculosis, and I shall not again practise the inoculations."J Cutan Genito-Urin Dis.May 1891;9:191-193.