TUBERCUI.OSIS. 141 



ment of this material as a curative agent. The daily use of tuber- 

 culin in cases of lupus or other superficial forms of tuberculosis 

 led to a more active congestion and an earlier molecular death of 

 the tissues of the local tubercle, until these were separated from 

 the living, healthy parts and the progress of tuberculosis in that 

 part was arrested. If there were then no deeper unseen tubercles 

 left in the system, a real cure might be effected in this way. But 

 the cure in such a case was only secured by a temporary aggrava- 

 tion of the disease in its primary focus. If other tubercles existed 

 in internal organs they, too, had the morbid process aggravated 

 and extended and the death of tissue increased by the fresh intro- 

 duction of tuberculin from without. In such a case the increased 

 mass of tubercle — dead and living — remained confined in the 

 midst of the surrounding tissues, and as the infecting materials 

 could not be cast off and separated ffom the body, they continued 

 their ravages with an increasing force in proportion to their recent 

 artificial extension. 



It is this extension of the tuberculosis under the influence of 

 the toxic products of the bacillus which raises the most impor- 

 tant question in connection with the consumption by man of the 

 flesh and dairy products of tuberculous animals and yet this 

 question has been overlooked by sanitarians in the most unac- 

 countable way. ' It has seemed enough for them that the living 

 tubercle bacillus did not exist in the juices of the muscles nor in 

 the milk. It seems never to have occurred to them that all the 

 soluble poisonous products of this bacillus were constantly circul- 

 ating in the blood which passes through the muscles, and that 

 they equally traversed the blood vessels of the mammary glands 

 and escaped into the milk. No pathologist can for a moment 

 doubt this general diffusion of these products in the tuberculous 

 subject. 



Accepting then as undeniable the presence of the soluble chem- 

 ical poisons in blood, flesh and milk, it follows that those who 

 eat this flesh or milk are continually taking in small doses of 

 tuberculin, and that in case they are already the victims of tuber- 

 culosis in however slight or indolent a form, this continuous 

 accession of the poison will rouse the morbid process into greater 

 activity and secure a dangerous extension. 



