THE BACILLUS LARRIKINOSUS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2577, 11 July 1882, Page 2

THE BACILLUS LARRIKINOSUS.

Thk very important discoveries made by Professor Koch with regard to that fatal disease, consumption, were alluded to in onr columns, „about three weeks ago. It \will be remembered that the'Professor ha.found out that tuburcular consumption is tk‘6 result of a parasite. Transferring direct ly hy inoculation iho tuberculous matter Horn diseased to healthy animals, he, in every instance reproduced the disease. He also cultivated his “ bacilli” artificially through a number of generations, and inoculation from the purified parasite still had the same effect as that made with “bacilli” taken straight from the diseased organs. Taken in connection with the investigations of Pasteur, the French doctor, who has made the splenic fever of sheep his special study, and who has proved that this disease also is the result of a parasite, Professor Koch’s discovery points to the possibility of the scourge of consumption being lessened by the further development of science. Pasteur has found a method by which the splenic fever bacilli can be rendered comparatively harmless, and sheep when inoculated with these more harmless parasites are proof for a certain time at all events, against the more dangerous form. If then the “bacillus tnbercolosis ” can be treated in the same way, there may be hope of inoculation for consumption being brought into practice in cases whore subjects are predisposed to that disease. Seeing that Professor Koch has ventured the startling statement that one-seventh of the deaths of the human race are due to tubercular disease,, the importance of the possibility wo have alluded to cannot be overrated.

An American journal, in an amusing article, dilates on further possibilities locked up in this discovery. “ Crime/ it says, “is said to bo a disease, and, if it is, what is to prevent the discovery of the germs and the treatment of criminals, or those with criminal tendencies, after the fashion adopted by Pasteur. Suppose we had the 1 bacillus larceniosus’ or ‘ murderosus,’ for example. All society has to do is to cultivate these bacilli in some appropriate soil, so as to make them capable of producing a mild form of the disease.” Adopting tha principle to our case, what glorious times would be ahead of us if science could properly develop this idea. A “ bacillus larrikiuosua ” might be developed on tha bread and butter of a succession of tea meetings, and might be used by fond parents, who might notice any inclination on the part of their offspring to prove troublesome. A magistrate, instead of fining a larrikin, might order him to be inoculated. All imprisoned persons of tho same class might he impregnE.ted with the necessary bacilli before release. A properly treated larrikin fvould be an excessively harmless individual. Two or three of them might lay in wait for an unoffending traveller, but were he to turn round, and use the mildest expletive they would probably “ make tracks.” Again, several of them might surround an unprotected female, as they are at present fond of doing, but were she suddenly to open her umbrella they would vanish into space. Gates would no longer be lifted off their hinges, for the peculiar sense of the ridiculouEi that renders such a proceeding amusing would have been reduced to a minimum. Indeed the larrikin would have been freed from the more severe attacks of his malady, and his ill-timed jokes and his violence would be of tha mildest possible description. It is unnecessary to dwell on the numerous advantages that would accrue to the community at large were the idea of inoculation carried out with regard to this class of individual. On the more general aspect of inoculation as a deterrent for crime wo do not propose to dwell. Tha “ Detroit Free Press” has developed tha suggestion with much success, and may possibly by this time have patented s discovery on the subject. We have merely wished to point out that the general public should not bo too downhearted over a crying evil when new possibilities are being daily opened out by the march of science.