324 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc 



Association, tliat " the mortalitj from tuberculosis in early cliild- 

 liood is not decreasing as it is at other ages in the United Kingdom, 

 and the opinion that this great prevalence of the disease in childhood 

 is due to infection through the alimentary canal by milk from tuber- 

 culous cows appears to be well founded." 



From Germany comes further confirmatory facts. Widerhofer 

 gives an analysis of 418 cases of tuberculosis in children, showing 

 among them 101 with involvement of the intestine. Of these 43, or 

 42,5 per cent, were between the ages of two and five years, the 

 period of life when cows' milk forms a large part of the food for chil- 

 dren. 



Cojiclusions. — In vicnv of the foregoing experiments, and of the 

 evidence quoted, it seems justifiable to conclude — 



1. That the tubercle bacillus from bovine sources has in culture 

 fairly constant and persistent peculiarities of growth and morpho- 

 logy, by which it may tentatively' be ditierentiared from that ordi- 

 narily found in man. 



2. That cultures from the two sources differ maikedly in patho- 

 genic power, aJi'ording further means of differentiation, the bovine 

 bacillus being very much more" active tha« the human for all species 

 of experimental animals tested, with the possible exception of swine, 

 which are highly susceptible to both. 



3. That tuberculous material from cattle and from man corres- 

 ponds closely in comparative pathogenic power to pure cultures of 

 the tubercle bacillus from the two sources, for all animals tested. 



4. That it is a fair assumption from the evidence at hand, and in 

 the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the bovine tubercle 

 bacillus has a high degree of pathogenic power for man also, which 

 is especially manifest in the early years of life. 



REFERENCES. 



1. Transactions Association American Physicians, ISOG. 



2. Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, bulletin No. 57, 

 June 1899. 



3. Journal of Experimental INIedicine, Vol. Ill, Kos. 4 and 5, 1898. 



4. Annales de Tlnstitut Pasteur, Vol. XII, No. 9, September, 1898. 



5. La Eevue de la Tuberculose, April, 1898. 



«. Philadelphia Medical Journal, July 21, 1900. 



7. Congres pour lY'tude de la Tuberculose, 1st Session, 1888. 



8. Zeitschrift f. Hygiene, Bd, III, 1888. 



9. Journal American Medical Association, April 16, 1898, 



10. Les Tuberculoses Animales. Nocard. 



11. Paris Acadimy of Medicine. La Semaine Mddicale, February 

 25, 1892. 



12. liritish Medical Journal, August 19, 1899, and Journal Com- 

 parative Pathology and Therapeutics, Vol. XII, Part 4. 



