332 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



deposits are of intra- or extra-uterine origin in early cases 

 of the disease. As a matter of interest it may be 

 mentioned that quite recently Bar and Renon have de- 

 monstrated tubercle bacilli in the blood of the umbilical 

 vein (7). The method used by these observers, that of 

 inoculating guinea-pigs with the suspected blood, and in 

 this manner establishing tuberculosis, is not so convincing 

 as the actual demonstration of bacteria in fcetal tissues. 

 Wassermann (17) in a recent paper especially insists on 

 this point, and discards all evidence of inherited disease 

 which rests simply upon inoculation experiments. He 

 describes a case of early tuberculosis which ended fatally 

 when the child was ten weeks old, where the disease was 

 acquired, not from the parents who were healthy, but by 

 direct infection from a tubercular relation, and believes that 

 such cases as these are not infrequently cited as instances 

 of congenital disease. In his opinion hereditary trans- 

 mission of bacteria does occur, but it is exceedingly rare 

 in comparison with the frequency of extra-uterine infection. 

 Bernheim (18) considers that the offspring rarely, if ever, 

 become tubercular if separated from tubercular parents, 

 with the exception of those cases where the placenta is 

 infected. The case reported by Ivan Honl (19) of a child 

 fifteen days old that on autopsy showed tubercular nodules 

 in the liver, spleen, and lungs, and numerous bacilli, 

 must be classed as a definite case of transmission which with 

 many others lends no support to Eberth's statement that 

 individuals do not inherit tuberculosis but acquire it (23). 



A recent case of congenital typhoid fever is related by 

 Freund and Levy (20), and instances of transmitted hemor- 

 rhagic infection have been recorded by Neumann (21) and 

 by Dungern (22). The numerous examples which the 

 journals of veterinary science contain, especially the work 

 of Bang, Kockel, and Lungwitz, also afford conclusive evi- 

 dence of the transmission of pathogenic micro-organisms, 

 though there is a consensus of opinion that the placental 

 is far more frequent than the germinative infection. The 

 share borne by the male in this transmission may be dis- 

 regarded, as no bacteriological evidence exists to support 



