Prof. Koch's Method to Cure Tuberculosis Popularly TreatedBirnbaum, Max
Science
Prof. Koch's Method to Cure Tuberculosis Popularly Treated
Birnbaum, Max
Tuberculin; Tuberculosis
To begin again with the simplest case, namely lupus, we injected the
full dose of .01 ccm. in nearly all such patients to begin with, and
allowed the reaction to take its full course, after 1-2 weeks we again
injected .01 ccm. and so forth until the reaction became less and less
and finally ceased. In the case of two patients with facial lupus three
respectively four injections in this manner resulted in a clean, smooth
scar in place of the affected parts; the remaining patients of this kind
have also improved in a measure proportioned to the time of treatment.
All the patients have suffered from their afflictions for years and have
been treated by various methods without success.
Tuberculosis of the glands, bones and joints has been treated in a very
similar manner, as in these cases larger doses were applied at longer
intervals. The result was the same as with lupus, a rapid cure in the
lighter and milder cases and a slowly progressing improvement in the
severer ones.
With the majority of our patients, those suffering from pulmonary
consumption, the conditions are somewhat different, patients with
decided pulmonary tuberculosis are very much more responsive to this
remedy, than those afflicted with surgical tubercles. We were forced to
reduce the quantity of the first dose of .01 ccm. as prepared for the
phthisicist, and we found that as a rule he reacted strongly on a dose
of .002 and even .001 ccm., but that the quantity could be rapidly
increased from this low initial dose to that which could be easily
tolerated by the other patients. We generally proceeded in such a manner
that the patient at first received an injection of .001 ccm. and if a
rise in the temperature set in this dose was repeated once daily until
the reaction ceased. Only then the dose was increased to .002 ccm. and
applied till the reactions failed to appear. And so forth, always
increasing the dose only .001 or at the most .002 up to .01 ccm. and
higher. This mild procedure seemed to me imperative, especially with
such patient as were in a weak and feeble condition. Proceeding in the
manner just described we can easily attain the application of very light
doses with but slight attacks of fever and hardly perceptible to the
patient. Some of the stronger consumptives were treated with larger
doses from the beginning, partly with a forced increase in the dosing
when it seemed as though the favorable result was obtained in a
correspondingly shorter time. The action of the remedy on the
phthisicist generally seemed to be such that cough and expectoration
increased somewhat after the first injection, then gradually diminished
and in favorable cases disappeared entirely; the sputum lost its
purulent nature and became slimy. The number of bacilli as a rule did
not decrease until the sputum had attained a phlegmy appearance (only
such patients were selected for these experiments in whose
expectorations bacilli were contained). They entirely disappeared
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