Tuberculosis. 



135 



Two things are shown by the above : (a) that the red muscle 

 is less frequently infecting than other parts, yet unquestionably 

 so in some cases ; and (b) that the acid stomach juices during 

 vigorous digestion are in some measure protective. It is equally 

 plain that no sufficient guarantee can be given as to the safety of 

 the raw flesh in any particular case. Then, again, the intermus- 

 cular lymphatic glands, which are favorite seats of infection, were 

 carefully avoided in the above experiments with flesh juice, yet 

 they always go with the dressed carcass and are eaten with its 

 steaks and roasts. In^igs, as already noted, the muscle itself is 

 often tuberculous. 



Danger from Milk. 



Milk is more to be dreaded than meat because the udder is 

 often the seat of tuberculosis, and the milk is usually taken 

 uncooked. The danger is enhanced by the fact that this is often 

 the necessary and only food of the infant and invalid, in which 

 the germ is especially liable, through weak and imperfect diges- 

 tion, to escape into the susceptible bowel. 



In milk, as in the case of meat, a strong, vigorous digestion 

 does, in some measure, protect the consumer. Peuch fed a two 

 months' pig in five days 4^ quarts of milk drawn from a tuber- 

 culous udder, and killed in 56 days it proved quite sound. He 

 inoculated four rabbits with the milk and all four became tuber- 

 culous. Again, in the absence of tuberculosis in the udder the 

 milk may be little, if at all, infecting. Gerlach, who produced 

 tuberculosis in calves, pigs and rabbits by feeding the milk, 

 found no result from certain tuberculous cows, while others 

 infected a large proportion, Nocard and McFadyean have been 

 unable to infect rabbits, etc., with milk from an apparently 

 sound udder of a tuberculous cow. The same has been my ex- 

 perience with milk from one cow in the last stages of chronic 

 tuberculosis, and another having acute tuberculosis. Bollinger, 

 Nocard and McFadyean claim that in the absence of tubercle in 

 the udder the milk is not infecting. Whether true or not as an 

 ultimate fact this cannot be made a rule of action, as the follow- 

 in;^ will show : 



Hirschberger inoculated rabbits in the abdominal cavity, with 

 the milk of 29 tuberculous cows of which the udders were or 

 appeared sound, and produced tuberculosis 14 times. 



