The importance of being familiar
with the aetiology of the disease before we can expect to combat it
with any well-grounded hope of success is evident.
If the sputum of a phthisical patient be submitted to the skilled
microscopist, he is nearly always able to demonstrate bacilli, but
this goes for very little. Because bacilli are found in phthisis, it
is no more certain that they are the cause of phthisis than it is
certain that cheese mites are the cause of cheese. Well, suppose we
were to inject sputum from a phthisical person into the lower animal
and tuberculosis follows, and then announce to the profession that we
have demonstrated the relation of the cause and effect between bacilli
and phthisis? Why we would start such an uproar of objections as would
speedily convince us that there was much work yet in the domain of
bacteriology.
The scientific investigators would say you have injected with the
sputum into the blood of your unfortunate patient, pus, morphological
elements, and perhaps half a dozen other forms of bacteria, any one of
which is just as likely to produce the disease as the bacillus you
have selected.
The first important step is, first isolate your bacillus.
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