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, homœopathically 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 Homœopathy 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 aērated. 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.