A few years ago Dr. Koch, of Berlin, Germany, announced that he had
discovered a cure for consumption. The same announcement has been made
thousands of times before by more or less illustrious physicians.
Dr. Koch's cure was a gas, requiring more or less elaborate apparatus.
Several years' trial of this supposed cure convinced the medical
profession, and Dr. Koch himself, that he was mistaken.
He retracted his statements and acknowledged he had been in error.
Yet in every large city of the country, Chicago, of course, included,
there are established "Koch Institutes" for the cure of consumption.
A more brazen fraud was never perpetrated on an ignorant public than
the claims which these so-called institutes advertise. They are
patronized chiefly by the poor--those who have been told by honest
physicians that they are incurable. Having no means with which to take
trips to the mountain or sea shore, they grasp at every quack medicine
or institute that offers hope of recovery.
I have visited the Chicago branch of this miserable fraud. Invalids
who can scarcely walk are to be seen there daily inhaling mixtures of
nauseous gases that have no more effect on the germ of consumption
than a popgun on one of Uncle Sam's ironclads. By means of paid-for
testimonials and a couple of "cappers," people from all parts of the
country are brought here, oftentimes taking the last dollar of the
family exchequer to pay for the so-called treatment. These frauds
have been exposed time and again. However, a new crop of victims are
gathered in every day and the game goes merrily on.