A Great Discovery.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 76

A Great Discovery.

Is tuberculosis one disease or two? Tin« is the question that occurs to the reader of the second interim report of the British Royal Commission on Tuberculosis. It contains an account of the elaborate e>porimems cr-rried out by Dr Cobbett at t\e experimental farms at Blythwood and 'Waipole, England, and cases are mentioned of all known forms of disease, both as it occurs ia children and in adults.

The virus was administered to different animal', and the results were strikingly constant. The. various strains of tubercle bacilli obtained! from man were shvply marked off into two classes. The f<n>t group caused rapidly fatal general tuberculosis, white the second, even when in* far larger doses, had only a slight local effect, and the disease tended to undergo a spontaneous cure. ' This was Ihe . case- ! speaking generally,' whatever - the aniiial I that was employed. , I The strains -that were highly virulent for | oxec were also highly virulent for the rabbit, while those that had & low degree of virulence for one very rarely caused progressive- or latal disease in the other; 1 Th,is • would seem finally 'to dispose of .Koch's view that bovine and human tuberculosis are different diseases.

The important point is raised, How can we be sure which type of virus the patient is suffering from? If one tends to a rapidly fatal issue, while the other tends to oure itself, this is a most important point to settle. At present it would appear to be only possible by carrying out elaborate, inoculation experiments. Yet before a man who ib found to be suffering from tuberculosis alters his whole career, itahould be determined- whether he belongs to the hopelesn or hopeful type of case. fjntil cases of tuberculosis are thus discriminated, all conclusions as to the success attending different modes of treatment may be vitiated by a fundamental fallacy. These results. -also- eiplain many apparent vagaries of tuberculosis. Every medical man has met with unexpected successes and equally unexpected failures in his treatment of this disease. H, as Dr Oobbett's experiments show, he is dealing with bacilli of entirely different virulence, , the reason for all this becomes clear.