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Bacillinum Tuberculinum And Aviaire The Viruses Of Tuberculosis


PREPARATION.--Triturate in the usual way.



(The literature on these several preparations is so

extensive that we must confine ourselves to the paper

read by Dr. Francois Cartier, Physician to the Hospital

St. Jacques, Paris, at the International Homoeopathic

Congress, 1896, it covering the ground more completely

than any other. For fuller information on Bacillinum

the reader is referred to Dr. J. Compton Burnett's book,

the New Cure for Consumption.)



I must disclaim any intention of traversing afresh the pathogenesy of

Tuberculin, or of instituting an examination into the various

treatises put forth on the subject of the virus of tuberculosis by the

allopathic as well as by the homoeopathic school.



The materia medica of Tuberculin takes its rise in the complex result

of the use of Koch's lymph, in experiments upon animals, and in certain

symptoms observed by those who have experimented upon themselves with

different products of tuberculous nature. I shall therefore indicate the

published sources, and I specially desire to place before the

Homoeopathic Congress of London the tuberculous virus under certain

aspects which are perhaps new; and if my conclusions seem somewhat

paradoxical I am content to accept, with a good grace, the criticisms of

my colleagues.



Fourteen years anterior to the researches of Koch, Hering, Swan and

Biegler availed themselves, as a homoeopathic remedy, of the

maceration of tuberculous lungs, and of the sputa of tuberculous

subjects.



Dr. J. Compton Burnett in his book, "A Cure for Consumption," several

years before Koch's experiments, noticed symptoms resulting from taking

the preparation which he calls Bacillinum.



Drs. de Keghel[C] and J. H. Clarke[D] instituted an inquiry into the

symptoms produced by the employment of Koch's lymph in the case of

tuberculous and non-tuberculous patients.



[C] L' Union Homeopathique, vol. v, No. 3.



[D] Homoeopathic World, vol. xxvi, No. 304.



Dr. Mersch[E] published a pathogenesy, based to a large extent upon that

of Dr. de Keghel; it is an excellent work.



[E] "On Tuberculin," an extract from the Journal Belge d'

homeopathie, 1895.



Dr. d'Abzen,[F] of Lisbon, sent to the Tuberculosis Congress of 1895, at

Coimbra, a study of the works of Koch and Pasteur, and an enumeration of

the treatises published by homoeopathists.



[F] Pathogenese, sua importancia.



We must notice also an English translation of Dr. Mersch's pathogenesy,

by Dr. Arnulphy, of Chicago, in which special attention is paid to the

symptoms observed in healthy and non-tuberculous persons, with some

original remarks about Tuberculin. It is published in the Clinique

for this year (February, 1896).



Nor must we overlook a series of writers who have published isolated



observations of the cases of persons cured with Tuberculin. Such are

Drs. Lambreghts, Joussett, Zoppritz, Horace Holmes, Richardson, Young,

Clarke, Pinart, Youman, U. H. Merson, Snow, Lamb, Clarke, Ebersole, W.

James, Kunkel, A. Zoppritz, Steinhauf, Van den Berghe, &c.



Finally, for my own part, in my articles in L'Art Medical, published

three years ago, and in the Hahnemannian Monthly (July, 1894), I have

insisted on homoeopathic action of the viruses of tuberculosis.



In certain of the pathogenesies of Tuberculin we find thrown pell-mell

together symptoms appertaining to Koch's lymph, as well as others which

belong to the product baptized by several names, such as Bacillinum

and Tuberculin, in the recommendation of which Hering and Swan, and

Dr. J. Compton Burnett, in England, have made themselves conspicuous.



Bacillinum--since it must be distinguished from Koch's

Tuberculin--is a maceration of a typical tuberculous lung.[G] Koch's

lymph is an extract in glycerine of dead tuberculous bacilli. The former

is compound natural infection; the latter is a product of laboratory

experiment. In the one, various bacteriological species are associated

which give, clinically, an appearance of cachexia and of hectic fever;

from the other we may sometimes observe vascular, cardiac, renal changes

having no connection with the clinical "syndrome" of pulmonary

tuberculosis. To place these products together in the same pathogenesy

gives an absolutely wrong sense, and the fact that both contain Koch's

bacillus gives no excuse for confounding them. In my opinion there are,

from a homoeopathic point of view, distinct differences between

Bacillinum and the Koch's lymph.



[G] Dr. J. Compton Burnett, in his book, "New Cure for

Consumption," p. 129, makes this remark: "The best way to get

some really good Bacillinum is to take a portion of the

lung of an individual who has died of genuine bacillary

tuberculosis pulmonum, choosing a good-sized portion from the

parietes of the cavity and its circumjacent tissue, as herein

will be found everything pertaining to the tuberculous

process--bacilla, debris, ptomaines and tubercles in all

its stages (such was practically the origin of the matrix of

my Bacillinum) and preparing by trituration in spirit. In

this way nothing is lost."



Experimentally Koch's bacillus, like many other microbes, does not

reproduce a clinical symptom-group; and we homoeopaths must have an

assemblage of clearly-defined symptoms before prescribing a poison on

homoeopathic principles. Such is unfortunately the case with many

other microbes in pure culture. The experimental diphtheria does not

resemble clinical diphtheria. The pneumococcus, pathogenetic of

pneumonia, is met with in many other diseases, such as pleurisy,

salpingitis, meningitis, etc. Koch's bacillus, too, sometimes remarkably

mild in its effects, and seeming to meet with no reaction in the system,

evolves aside as in the verrucous tuberculosis; while at other times

nothing is able to arrest the action of this terrible microbe, and the

world still waits in vain for the man who shall find the means of

combatting it. The toxins of tuberculosis are far from reproducing

clinical tuberculosis; yet even here we find a curious aspect sometimes

assumed by certain poisons drawn from the pure cultivation of microbes.

We cannot produce with Tuberculin symptoms analogous to those of real

tuberculosis--as it is possible, for instance, to produce tetanus with

the toxine alone, Tetanin.



As a general rule, in the case of a healthy man, Koch's lymph would not

develop any reaction, its effects manifesting themselves in a febrile

congestion, which betrays the presence of tubercles. In our pathogeneses

(those of Mersch-Arnulphy), we note the following symptoms--"catarrhal

pneumonia with soft hepatisation, and tendency to abscess formation; at

post-mortems it is not a gelatinous or fibrinous exudation which oozes

out from the alveoli, but an opaque and watery fluid; 'never,' so says

Virchow, 'is there found the characteristic lesion of croupous

pneumonia.'" A pneumonia from which issues an aqueous and opaque

liquid! I confess I do not understand it.



Experimentally this same lymph of Koch gives symptoms of inflammation of

the arteries which are not found in clinical tuberculosis.



Animals inoculated with progressive doses of Avian tuberculin, or with

serum of tuberculous animals, undergo wasting and loss of appetite, and

other general symptoms. They may die of cachexia, or may develop an

isolated abscess; but they do not present characteristic symptoms as

they would under the action of Cantharis, of Phosphorus, or of

Lead.



Finally, inoculation with dead bacilli may produce real tuberculosis.



In the pathogenesy put forth by homoeopathists, pulmonary symptoms do

not occupy a prominent place. Dr. Burnett, who has experimented on

himself with Bacillinum, notes at the end of his symptoms, after the

headache, a slight and almost insignificant cough.



In explaining the clinical forms of infectious complaints, we are

frequently forced to admit the increasingly preponderant part played by

association of microbes--as it is the frequent case in diphtheria--and

especially the modifications which depend directly on the disposition of

the organ attacked, and not upon the action of the microbe itself.



An examination of the above considerations leads me to the following

conclusions:



1. That the importance of the materia medica of the tubercular virtues

ought not to be exaggerated. There are few characteristic symptoms to

take off; it is more wise to guide oneself in the homoeopathic

application of the therapeutics by the clinical symptoms of the

evolution of the various tuberculosis, rather than by the intoxication

produced by their active products, the Tuberculins.



2. Koch's lymph, Bacillinum and Avian tuberculin must be studied

separately, clinically as well as experimentally. Bacillinum presents

symptoms very different from those of Avian tuberculin, and

especially from those of Koch's lymph; and I intend to divide my remarks

into three parts, corresponding to these three substances, which have

actually become homoeopathic remedies.



* * * * *



At the time of the introduction of the ever-memorable Koch's lymph,

there were included under the head of poisonings by this drug vascular

lesions, as I have mentioned above, acute arteritis, arterio-sclerosis,

changes in the vessels of the heart and the kidneys, and acute

nephritis. Apropos of acute nephritis, the supposition was that the

kidney became congested because of the presence in that part of certain

tubercular islets, and that the kidney responded, like the tuberculous

lung, under the influence of the Tuberculin, by acute congestion.



However this might be, these vascular lesions drew attention to the

homoeopathicity of Koch's lymph in nephritis. Dr. Jousset has

experimented in it with encouraging results, using homoeopathic

dilutions, in Bright's disease; and at the meeting of the Societe

Homoeopathique Francaise on April 18, 1895, Drs. Tessier, Silva and

Jousset, father and son, mentioned the diminution of albumen in cases of

chronic and incurable nephritis, and the appearance of that substance in

acute cases.



Dr. Arnulphy, in a series of articles in the Chicago Clinique, which I

have read attentively, speaks favorably of Koch's lymph in

homoeopathic dilutions in cases of tuberculosis. Personally I have not

used it, and I am loth to pass judgment on observations recorded in

every good faith. I would merely remark to my honorable colleague that

Koch's lymph was used in our school in all the homoeopathic dilutions

possible at the moment of its far-resounding discovery--a fact which he

should know as well as myself. To mention only one instance--Drs. Simon,

V. L. Simon Boyer and Chancerel used the drug at the Hahnemann Hospital

in Paris at the time of the arrival in France of the first consignment

of lymph from Germany; and I am nearly certain that there is not at this

time a single country where homoeopathists have not used this remedy

in all the infinitesimal dilutions. Homoeopaths and allopaths have

actually taken pretty much the same side as regards the primitive

formula put forward by Koch (I am not now speaking of trials of new

tuberculins); and Dr. Arnulphy would be fortunate enough were he able to

revive its credit after its several years' oblivion as a cure of

tuberculosis.



Clinically this lymph of Koch has led to wonderful cures in lobular

pneumonia, for it produces pneumonia, broncho pneumonia, and congestion

of the lungs in the tuberculous patient. Its homoeopathic action would

thus appear more trustworthy than its isopathic, and Dr. Arnulphy makes

this remark: "I make bold to state that no single remedy in our materia

medica, not excepting Ipecac, Iodine, Tartar emetic, and even

Phosphorus, approaches the singular efficacy of Tuberculin in

well-authenticated cases of that affection (broncho pneumonia, be it) in

the child, the adult, or the aged. Its rapidity of action in some cases

is little short of wonderful, and all who have used it in this line are

unanimous in their unbounded praise of its working."



The four cases quoted by Dr. Mersch (Journal Belge d' Homeopathie,

November, 1894, January and May, 1895) are very instructive:



The first is that of a member of the Dutch Parliament who had contracted

a pneumonia which reached a chronic stage. While undergoing a relapse

his expectoration assumed a rusty-red color, which color disappeared

completely in three days on treatment with Tuberculin 30th.



The second case is that of a person who was seized, after an attack of

measles, with broncho-pneumonia. On the fifth day Dr. Mersch prescribed

Tuberculin 6th. In a day or two the condition of the chest was

completely altered.



In the third case an old lady was likewise attacked with

broncho-pneumonia, together with digestive troubles, and was for a long

time in a serious state. After the lapse of a single night, which was a

rather distressing one, under the action of the remedy the amelioration

was great, and it was with difficulty that Dr. Mersch found a touch of

bronchitis in the very place where the day before he had heard nothing

but the tubular souffle. The prescription ran: Tuberculin 6th, eight

packets of ten globules each, one to be taken every two hours.



Finally, in a fourth case, the patient was a lady of vigorous physique,

and twenty-five years of age, who had capillary bronchitis, combined

with the symptoms of angina pectoris. Dr. Mersch had once more had an

opportunity of viewing with astonishment the rapidity with which the

therapeutic action of Tuberculin may be manifested in such cases.



* * * * *



Bacillinum deserves study from two points of view, isopathically in

the treatment of tuberculosis, homoeopathically in the treatment of

affections of the respiratory organs without tuberculosis. To fully

understand its action it is necessary to know with exactness its

composition. Dr. J. Compton Burnett has christened it Bacillinum,

because he recognized in its lower dilutions the presence of Koch's

bacilli. As a matter of fact, Bacillinum contains in its elements

everything that a cavity of a tuberculous lung is capable of containing;

that is to say, many other things besides Koch's bacillus. The bacillus

of Koch is feebly pyogenetic, and the purulent contents of the cavities

include pyogenetic staphylococci and streptococci, to say nothing of the

organic products which play a large part in the production of the hectic

fever of tuberculosis. It is a combination of toxins, then, which

constitutes Bacillinum, and especially of toxins of a purulent nature.

I lay stress upon this last fact, as it goes to sustain the opinion that

I hold on the action of Bacillinum.



The infinitesimal dose of Homoeopathy is in no way inimical to the

entrance of all the elements constituting a substance into its materia

medica. The salts of potassium owe their effect to their base as well

as to their acid; Graphites is analogous to Carbo and Ferrum,

because it contains both carbon and iron; Hepar sulphuris calcareum

acts by reason of its sulphur as well as of its lime. Bacillinum,

then, combines in its action all its constituent products, owing its

efficacy to its suppurative microbes as well as its inclusion of Koch's

bacillus.



This method of viewing the matter, which is peculiar to myself, permits

me to include in one and the same category the action of Bacillinum in

consumption and its action in non-tuberculous bronchitis.



I have studied conscientiously the action of Bacillinum in

tuberculosis, and I must confess that I am looking out still for an

authentic case of cure by this remedy. Nevertheless, in the midst of the

paucity of drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis, I am happy to state

that Bacillinum has produced in my hands considerable amelioration of

the symptoms of this disease. Perhaps in certain cases it produces what

Bernheim would call "la treve tuberculeuse." But sooner or later the

drug, after ameliorating the symptoms, loses its effect, and the disease

again gets the upper hand. I wish I could be as optimistic as Dr. J.

Compton Burnett in his interesting book, "A New Cure for Consumption;"

but that is impossible.



In looking over my observations I find that the symptom which has always

undergone the greatest mitigation has been the expectoration. When

Bacillinum acts on tuberculosis the sputum is less abundant, less

purulent, less green, and more a[=e]rated. It is this which has always

struck me most in the action of Bacillinum. It is rarely that a

patient satisfied with the remedy fails to remark, "I expectorate less."

In cases of dry cough at the beginning of tuberculosis I have noticed

that the drug evidently arrests the tubercular process.



I would most severely criticise, as well for myself as for others, cases

of so-called "cure of tuberculosis." There certainly are persons in whom

the disease does not develop. These may have been accidentally

infected, and their phagocytes may have struggled against their microbe

foe. But in the case of an individual in whom the tubercle finds a

suitable field for development, it is the merest chance that he entirely

recovers without ulterior relapse; mostly it is a seeming cure, caused

by a time of pause in the microbian pullulation.



Last year I had under my care, at the Hospital St. Jacques, a truly

extraordinary case. It has been followed out by Dr. Jousset, by Dr.

Cesar, head of the hospital laboratory, and by the house-physicians. It

was that of a woman who entered the hospital suffering from influenza,

and who, a few days after a slight amelioration of her symptoms, was

attacked with a pulmonary congestion, clearly localized in the top of

the left lung, and accompanied by all the clinical symptoms of

tuberculosis--rales and moist crepitation, dulness, exaggeration of the

thoracic vibration, nummular expectoration, fever, perspiration,

spitting of blood--everything was there. Examination of the sputa showed

distinctly the presence of Koch's bacilli. Everyone at the hospital

diagnosed tuberculosis, myself the first. I gave her Avian tuberculin

and in three weeks all the symptoms had disappeared. That woman left the

hospital completely cured, and a year afterwards her health was still

perfect. In my opinion this patient never had consumption; she was

attacked with pseudo-phymic bronchitis, a complication which is very

often found with influenza, and which may very easily be mistaken for

tuberculosis; and in spite of the presence in the sputa of Koch's

bacillus I would not register it as a case of tuberculosis, because, in

contradistinction to that single case, I could mention twenty cases of

tuberculosis whose symptoms neither Avian tuberculin nor any other

such drug has cured.



There is absolutely no connection between the clinical evolution of real

tuberculosis and observations based on the autopsies of old persons

whose lungs contain cavities, but whose death was not due to

tuberculosis. To admit, with Professor Brouardel, that three-fourths of

those who have died a violent death are possessed of tuberculous

lesions, whose existence was not suspected while the subject was living,

would be running absolutely counter to clinical experience. The time is

probably at hand when the different kinds of tuberculosis will be

distinguished and separated, as we distinguish and separate the varieties

of serious pleurisy and purulent pleurisy, of broncho-pneumonia arising

from the presence of pneumococci, of streptococci, or of staphylococci.

Malassez has already described cases of pseudo-tuberculosis, or

zoogleic-tuberculosis, whose existence has only been acknowledged of

late years. Courmont has discovered a pseudo-bacillosis of a bovine

origin. We have a pseudo-bacillosis of a strepto bacillar origin, not to

mention the "professional" tuberculoses, such as that to which persons

are exposed who have to breathe the fumes of charcoal.



To return to Bacillinum, I consider this remedy as a powerful

moderator of the muco-purulent secretion of consumption. While

diminishing the secretion it modifies the auscultation; there is less

thick sputum, the cavities are drier, the peri-tuberculosis congestion

less intense. The clinical symptoms follow those of the auscultation; as

the patient expectorates less he is less feeble, coughs less, gains

strength, and regains his spirits; but the tubercle remains untouched.

The peri-tuberculous congestion only is diminished, as one may observe

with the naked eye when Koch's lymph is employed in the amelioration of

lupus. The peri-tuberculous inflammation disappears; the skin seems

healthy, but the yellow tubercle remains as it was, and the patient is

still uncured. Such are the limits I assign to Bacillinum in its

action on consumption.



Far more potent is the part played by Bacillinum in non-tuberculous

pulmonary affections, for the simple reason that the struggle is with a

less redoubtable opponent. Ebersole, Young, Zoppritz, Burnett, James,

Holmes, Jousset, Steinhauf have published cases of the cure of acute

bronchitis, influenza diarrhoea, syphilitic eruptions, cystitis,

ringworm of the scalp, nephritis, idiocy, retarded dentition, cretinism,

gout, rheumatism, etc., with Tuberculin or Bacillinum.



If we wish to prescribe Bacillinum successfully in non-tuberculous

affections, we must observe, on auscultation, symptoms analogous to

those which are perceptible in tuberculosis. The peculiar

characteristics which indicate Bacillinum for non-tuberculous maladies

of the respiratory organs are, in my opinion, the two following: The

first is oppression; the second, muco purulent expectoration. These

two phenomena show themselves always in the last stage of tuberculosis;

that is to say, together with the products contained in the preparation

of Bacillinum. Dyspnoea resulting from bronchial and pulmonary

obstruction caused by a super-abundant secretion from the mucous

membrane is marvellously relieved by Bacillinum. I put forward this

fact, not on the evidence of a single isolated observation, but on that

of several cases conscientiously studied. Such expectoration leads to

the auscultation of sub-crepitant rales, sounding liquid and gurgling,

having some analogy to the moist sounds of tuberculosis.



This power of Bacillinum to relieve oppression in pulmonary catarrh is

in no way surprising from the point of view of the law of similars; for

in the acute and infectious stage of tuberculosis the dyspnoea is a

characteristic symptom, and is far more distressing than the cough. I

have read with pleasure in the work of Dr. Mersch, of Brussels, on

Tuberculin, of a fact which corroborates my statement as to the

influence of Bacillinum over catarrhal dyspnoea. After the sixth

dose the patient, who was suffering from bronchial asthma, was seized

with violent intercostal pains, with augmented cough; but the oppression

entirely disappeared after the first day, and did not return even three

months after the treatment had ceased.



In L' Art Medical of January, 1894, and in the Hahnemannian Monthly

of July, 1894, I published the case of an old man of eighty years of

age, suffering from broncho-pneumonia, who, in the last stage of

asphyxia, had been saved by Bacillinum. Two years ago I was called

upon to treat another octogenarian who, as the result of a cold,

developed an obstruction in the bronchial tubes, and at the basis of the

lungs. He passed sleepless nights in a sitting posture, striving to draw

deep inspirations. Phosphorus, Arsenic, and Stibium produced no

relief. I gave him Bacillinum 30th, and he slept the whole night

through. Doses of this remedy, administered at longish intervals,

always produced a remarkable amelioration. Last year I was called to the

house of an upholsterer. He preferred not going to bed at all to passing

the night in bed without closing his eyes. He had humid asthma with

incessant cough, which ended by causing him to eject thick yellow and

puriform mucus. For eight days he took Arsenic and Blatta, and for a

whole week he passed the nights without sleeping. From the day he took

Bacillinum he was able to sleep. I saw him again this year in good

health. Once or twice he was attacked with the same bronchorrhea, and

had my prescription made up at the chemists, with the same success. This

year, too, I have given Bacillinum to several patients at the Hopital

St. Jacques for the same symptoms, and it has never yet failed me.



When I am called upon to treat a patient suffering from an obstruction

of the bronchial tubes occasioned by mucus, which is frequently thick

and opaque and puriform--an obstruction extending to the delicate

bronchial ramification, and causing oppression more frequently than

cough, I turn my thoughts at once to Bacillinum. Bacillinum is a

drug for old people, or, at any rate, for those whose lungs are old; for

those chronically catarrhal, or whose pulmonary circulation is enfeebled

without regard to the age of the subject; for those who have dyspnoea,

and who cough with difficulty from inaction of the respiratory ducts;

for the humid asthmatic, the bronchorrheal, who feel suffocated at

night; and, finally, for those who, after taking cold, are straightway

attacked with pulmonary congestion. Here, I believe, is the exact

sphere of action of Bacillinum as a homoeopathic remedy.



Bacillinum has been stigmatized as an unstable product. I consider

this reproach ill-founded. Bacillinum is no more unstable than

Psorinum, which is an approved remedy in Homoeopathy. Typical

tuberculous lungs contain practically almost invariable elements. Do not

the microbes produced by cultivation and the animal extracts show any

variation in quality, and do they not change in the long run?



Like most homoeopathists who have made use of Bacillinum, I think it

is best given in the high dilutions and at long intervals. Dr. J.

Compton Burnett and Van der Berghe recommended the higher potencies--the

1000th, 100,000, etc., whereas I content myself with the 30th, which

satisfies every requirement. As regards the intervals which must elapse

between the doses, certain writers recommend from one to two weeks. In

acute cases I generally give six globules of Bacillinum 30th every two

or three days; and in chronic cases of tuberculosis, etc., one dose

about twice a week.



We are no longer permitted to include in the same description the

tuberculosis of birds and that of mammals. Although the two bacilli, as

far as form and color are concerned, are absolutely identical, the

evolution of the two forms of tuberculosis presents characteristics so

different that we are forced to study them separately. At this day the

debate is a question of words, and experts discuss whether there are two

distinct genera or merely two different species.



It is this characteristic of non-transmissibility from mammals to birds,

and vice versa, which forms the chief difference between the two kinds

of tuberculosis. Strauss failed in his endeavor to inoculate a fowl with

tuberculosis by injecting fifty kilogrammes of tuberculous human sputa,

whereas the fowl, absolutely impervious to human tuberculosis, became

infected when treated with a very slight quantity of the avian

tuberculosis. The guinea-pig, so sensitive to the human microbe,

presented encysted abscesses when treated with the virus of birds; it

dies of cachexia, but never, as far as the naked eye can discern, of

generalized tuberculosis. Rabbits are more sensitive to the avian

infection. Dogs are absolutely refractory. The monkey, so delicate in

our climate, and which almost invariably perishes from tuberculosis, is

uninjured by inoculation from avian virus. The parrot is a remarkable

exception to the general rule; it is the only bird which resists avian

tuberculosis, while, on the other hand, it is sensitive to that of man.

Such facts as these irrefutably differentiate the two kinds of

tuberculosis.





[H] Tuberculosis of Birds. Tuberculosis of Mammals.



Aspect of Extreme softness on Human tuberculous

cultures. glycerine jelly or growths are adherent,

on serum. hard and difficult to

break up even with a

strong platinum wire on

glycerine jelly as well

as on serum.



Medium of Transferred from a Cultivation more difficult.

cultures. solid to a liquid

medium the bacillus

grows rapidly,

having the appearance

of rounded

grains.



Temperature. Develops at a Ceases to develop at

temperature of 45 deg. C. temperatures under 41 deg. C.



Odor. Somewhat sour. More subtle and fresh odor.



Duration. Takes longer to develop, Is with difficulty generated

and may remain again at the end of six

for a year or months. At the end of

thereabouts. eight or ten months loses

its vegetable character.



Seat of the In animals usually In the lung, generally in

tubercles. on the liver, the men, and in certain animals;

spleen, the intestines, in the spleen, the

and the peritoneum. liver, and the glands in

rabbits and guinea-pigs.



Transmissibility.

Only from one bird Mammals are unaffected by

to another, except the tuberculosis of birds,

in the case of the and vice versa.

parrot.



[H] I have tabulated shortly their various characteristics.



Ever since this variety of tuberculosis has been distinguished,

attempts have been made to inoculate or cure human tuberculosis with

that of birds. In our school the thing has been attempted at the Hopital

St. Jacques, where Aviaire has been administered in homoeopathic

dilutions, in potions or through punctures in cases of consumption. As a

matter of fact, neither allopaths nor homoeopaths have succeeded in

obtaining a formula which will cure consumption with the virus of birds.

Amelioration has been noted as with other remedies, but never a series

of authenticated cures. Nevertheless, in every country experiments are

continually being made; we must hope that they will end in a more

decisive success than is at present the case.



Hoping to profit by the homoeopathicity of an active virus, I was, I

think, one of the first who employed Aviaire in non-tuberculous

respiratory affections on the lines of Bacillinum, and I am bound to

say that up to the present my faith in the law of similars has not been

shaken by my experiments.



In L'Art Medical (August, 1895) I published a number of cases in which

I successfully treated localized bronchitis, generally the result of

influenza, and reproducing the symptoms of tuberculosis, with Aviaire.

The most characteristic of all these observations is that of which I

have spoken above. The patient was restored to health as if by magic

with Aviaire within three weeks. Dr. P. Jousset, anticipating my

observations, thus expressed himself in the number of L'Art Medical

preceding the one which contained my remarks: "A young woman entered the

Hopital St. Jacques at the end of January, 1895, with feverish

influenzal bronchitis. At first the patient was treated with small doses

of Sulphate of Quinine, and a little later she took Ipecac and

Bryonia alternately. The fever disappeared and the general condition

improved considerably, and the sub-crepitant rales became confined to

the top of the left lung. The patient continued to expectorate thick

nummular and puriform sputa, as in the influenza. After some days the

disease resumed its sway, the bodily forces diminished, the emaciation

made great progress, and local and general signs indicated rapid

consumption. Bacteriological analysis led to the detection of numerous

Koch's bacilli. I gave over the case at this time, and some weeks

afterwards I learnt with surprise that the patient was well and growing

fat, and that the inoculation of the sputa had produced no effects. The

cure has been maintained for three months, and the young woman has

resumed her employment." I had prescribed Aviaire 100th, five drops a

day, during the whole period of the disease, unaccompanied by any other

remedy.



As I have said before, more than a year afterwards the young woman

continued in good health.



Following this case, Dr. Jousset quoted two analogous instances in his

practice, both of influential bronchitis, in which the sputa contained,

for a certain period, Koch's bacillus. One was cured with Aviaire 6th

and strong doses of Sulphate of Quinine, and the other with Aviaire

6th and twenty drops of Tincture of Drosera, a day.



"What conclusions must I draw from these facts?" says Dr. Jousset. "That

the avian tuberculosis cured the consumption? I have failed too often in

the treatment of ordinary consumption with this remedy to admit that."

That is my opinion also.



Koch's bacillus has been found in the nasal secretions of healthy

hospital nurses, and of students of medicine, as noted by Strauss. Would

it not be possible to come across it accidentally in certain kinds of

expectoration, just as the pneumococcus is found in saliva?



In one of the numbers of La Medecine Moderne of last year there

appeared a short article on the "Influenzas known as pseudo-phymic." The

writer remarked on the strong analogy which certain complications of

pulmonary influenza presented to acute tuberculosis. He observed, among

other forms: 1st, the influenzal bronchitis which affected one of the

summits of the lung, the most difficult form to diagnose from

tuberculosis; 2d, the broncho-pneumonic form; 3d, the pleuro-pneumonic

form, bearing a close resemblance to tuberculous pleurisy. I might

remark that this last form is still little known and ill-defined. The

influenza microbe always imitates to a remarkable degree the microbe of

tuberculosis in certain instances; and if we wish to effect a cure on

the laws laid down by Hahnemann in certain forms of influenzal

bronchitis, we must frequently seek for the simillimum in the virus of

tuberculosis.



I have mentioned oppression as one of the characteristics of

Bacillinum. Now influenzal bronchitis is markedly accompanied by an

incessant cough and by grave general symptoms. There is more frequently

acute than passive, obstructive and dyspnoeic congestion. I am

inclined to prefer Aviaire to Bacillinum in such cases, and I should

like to briefly touch upon certain cases in my practice.



I have under my care a little girl of twelve years of age who has for

two years developed an influenza which rapidly leads to pulmonary

symptoms, always distinctly localized in the top of the left lung. The

mother is tuberculous, and the child, who was born with forceps, has her

left chest less developed than her right. The congestion which

accompanies the influenza is sudden and severe; within twenty-four hours

the lung is invaded, and fine rales are soon heard. Twice running, at

intervals of a year, Aviaire 100th has stifled the symptoms in a few

days. I have seen an analogous case, only with congestion of the base of

the lung.



In my clinical report of the Hopital St. Jacques (in August, 1895) I

note ten cases of acute influenzal bronchitis with incessant cough,

fever, and expectoration, rapidly cured with Aviaire. This year I have

prescribed it with the same success as at the Hopital St. Jacques in

cases of influenzal bronchitis, with active congestion. I will mention

two cases of the pulmonary complications of measles which were rapidly

dissipated by this remedy; but I must also mention a third case of

measles in which Aviaire failed and Bryonia proved successful. The

child had an acute rubeolic laryngitis, and few pulmonary symptoms.

Bryonia was in this case more decidedly indicated than Aviaire.



The dilution of Aviaire which I have always used is the 100th. I give

usually five drops a day.



It seems that Aviaire does not act in diminishing the cough like an

anodyne or a narcotic, but braces up the whole organism. The relief of

debility and the return of appetite are the phenomena which I have

observed in conjunction with the diminution of the cough.



I have given Aviaire 100th for weeks, and even for a month, regularly

every day, without having observed excitement or aggravation. It would

thus appear to be a remedy of long-lasting action, capable in certain

cases of modifying the organism, and of bracing a constitution which has

become enfeebled from the effects of influenza or of suspicious

bronchitis.



In contrast with Bacillinum I have noted, in my observations on

Aviaire, considerable cough and little dyspnoea--an acute

inflammatory, extremely irritating cough, such as one meets with in

acute diseases or sub-acute affections in young people; a cough which

fatigues, and which leads to enfeeblement and loss of appetite--in a

word, a suspicious cough. To conclude my remarks, the utility of

Aviaire in suspicious bronchitis--an expression on which I again lay

stress--I will recall certain indubitable examples of the cure (at the

Hopital St. Jacques) of bronchitis or of pulmonary congestion at the top

of one of the lungs, or of bronchitis on one side only, or of congestion

predominating on one side. These localizations on one side are

sufficiently grave symptoms to warrant apprehension of the hatching of

tuberculosis.



If I were myself attacked, as the result of influenza or measles, or of

some weakening malady, with an incessant tickling and stubborn cough,

with certain closely localized pulmonary symptoms; if I lost my strength

and appetite; if, in a word, I were attacked by bronchitis whose upshot

was highly doubtful, and which caused apprehension of tuberculosis, I

should not hesitate a single moment, with the examples which I have had

before me, to try Aviaire 100th upon myself.



Such is the conclusion of my clinical observations made at Hopital St.

Jacques in August, 1895.



What I said last year I can only repeat with renewed confidence in this;

and I hope that the years which follow will not cause me to alter my

opinion.



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