Phthisis and Serums.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 76

Phthisis and Serums.

De Calmette, the "head of the Pasteur ,tn=»u«ute at Lille, read a -remarkable paper before tire members of the French Association for the Advancement of Science. B.s :x>ech was on "The Problem of "Vaccinai.on against Tuberculosis/ What was perh 0.1.1 most interesting to the lay mind was Dr Calm-ette's frank recognition of the utter failure of all the boasted eerunis which ■were to render humanity immune again*;: the most terrible of scourges. The brilliant promises of Koch, Behring, Ma.rag!}ano, etc., only raised hopes to be doomed. "There is," said the professor, "no antitubeirculous serum in existence which has any real curative power." At the came time Dr Calmette still inclines to the beliet that the problem is not unsolvable.. He agrees with BrouardeFs dictum that most men are, or have been, tuberculous, and that thesa who have resisted arc almostrendered immune. fle asks himself if the true treatment of tuberculosis is not precisely to treat and cure the patient at the first attack. To his end a rapid diagnosis is necessary, and must be followed by the immediate despatz*h of the patient to a '"preventorium," or place of isolation, where they may be protected from fresh contamination, whether by the family — if there is a consumptive in it — or by the milk of a tuberculosis cow. - Dr Calmette believes that consumptives vaccinate themselves, but they must 'be helped. Con-s-um<ptivea whose malady is fatal are these who have been exposed to successive reinfection at ahorc intervals by cohabitation with consumptives or by infected food. Tho <-ssential point is to diagnose die first infection and to isolate the patient, so as to prevent reinfection for a certain period. During this time bhe malady follows :t3: t3 course, and is 'cured — in other words, the patient vaccinates himself. Later, when exposed to reinfection, he will resist, being rendered immune by his first attack. Dr Calmette urges that war should be waged without respect against the propagation ol tuberculosis by suspect saliva, mead, and milk. He calls upon women to enrol themselves in a peaceful army fighting tuberculosis, and quotes the famous words of Jules Simon: "When a woman :s: s taught a small school is founded."