124 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



These growths assume wart-like, or cauliflower, or grape-like 

 shapes, from which the names "perlsucht,'- "pearly disease," "pom- 

 meliere," atid "grape disease," as applied to bovine tuberculosis, 

 aie derived. 



In cattle, as iu man, the lungs are the chief seat of the disease. 

 In about half of all cases the lungs and serous membranes are simul- 

 tancoiis'Iy affected; the lungs alone in about one-third, and the serous 

 membrane alooe in about one-fifth. 



'Since 1863 Virchow has insisted that the two tuberculosis were 

 distinct, an attitude reaffirmed by him in his latest publication, his 

 chief point being that we cannot call anything tuberculosis which 

 does not show the true histologic tubercle, whether or not the tis- 

 sues contain tubercle bacilli and show changes due entirely to them. 

 Although insisting so strongly on this distinction, which is not 

 held by all pathologists, Virchow does not accept Koch's conclu- 

 sions, and says that in the postmortem examinations at the Charity 

 several cases have been found showing an unusual peritoneal tuber- 

 culosis, with enormous growths, such as are seldom seen in man. 

 These cases he regards as being possibly of bovine origin through 

 food. 



The histologic identity of human tuberculosis and pearl disease 

 was first demonstrated by Schiippel and his work has been sup- 

 plemented by Baumgarten, who has observed characteristic case- 

 ation such as occurs in the human tubercle, take place in the nodules 

 of pearl disease, ''in a typical form and with like regularity." The 

 process is often obscured by rapid calcareous changes which, he 

 justly remarks, are terminal, and have nothing to do with the actual 

 disease, and which, furthermore, are often seen in human tuber- 

 culosis. On the other hand, it has repeatedly been shown that 

 typical miliary tuberculosis can be produced in cattle by the bovine 

 bacillus, and as seen in the specimens before you the same result 

 may be brought about at times by the human bacillus. In fact, ex- 

 perimental tuberculosis in cattle induced by inoculation with the 

 bovine tubercle bacillus is usually of the miliary type, and only ex- 

 ceptionally assumes the form considered typical of the natural bo- 

 vine disease. In this connection Hueppe very aptly calls attention 

 to the fact that Koch in his experiments with the bacilli of bovine 

 tuberculosis produced in cattle "only tuberculosis, but not the tuber- 

 culosis of the pleura peculiar to the ox — the so-called perlsucht; his 

 experiments, therefore, in the sense of his special interpretation, 

 did not even prove that bovine tuberculosis affects the ox." It has 

 further been show^n by Troje, and by Dr. Theobald Smith, that pearl 

 disease may be produced in rabbits by the human tubercle bacillus. 

 Troje has observed one case of pearly disease affecting the pleura 

 in man. 



