No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 129 



The interest which has been aroused by Professor Koch's paper 

 has broujjht out numerous reports of such cases, which are now be- 

 ing published to show that man has something to fear from bovine 

 tuberculosis. 



Dr. Kurt Mueller, a surgeon of Erfort, describes the cases of 

 two healthy young men who were under his care. Roth were 

 butchers, and in both cuts were sustained while working on tuber- 

 culous cattle, the wound opening the synovial sheath of a tendon 

 in the hand. In each case an operation was necessary, and it was 

 found that the wall of the sheath, as well as the tendon itself, was 

 thickened, while upon them were large numbers of yellow nod- 

 ules, proven to be tubercles by microscopic examination. These 

 tubercles were placed very thickly near the scar, gradually becom- 

 ing fewer as the scar was left. lo one of the men the trouble 

 extended from the finger to the forarm, and there was some evi- 

 dence of tuberculosis even at the muscular attachment of the tendon. 

 In the second case the tendon was attached to the sheath, and the 

 disease limited to an area 10 cm. in length. Examination of the re- 

 moved tissue proved the presence of tubercle bacilli. Both of these 

 men had good family histories, and were free from tuberculosis else- 

 where, so tha.t Dr. Mueller has no doubt that they were inoculated 

 with bovine tubercle bacilli. 



De Jong observed the case of -a man who injured his finger 

 while examining the mesentery of a tuberculous cow. The wound 

 did not heal, the edges became indurated, and considerable swell- 

 ing ensued, with pain which increased steadily and failed to yield 

 to ordinary treatment. Curettage and cautery were finally used 

 with success. In the scrapings tubercle bacilli were demonstrated. 



In Berlin two men wiio are employed in the slaughter-house to 

 carry the condemned tuberculous meat to the place where it is de- 

 stroyed have developed tuberculosis of the skin of the hands. At a 

 recent meeting of the Medical Society, of Berlin, Professor Lassar 

 presented cases of verrucous tuberculosis of the skin. He had ob- 

 served this type of skin tuberculosis in butchers who had handled 

 tuberculous meat. Of thirty-four cases seen by him four were in 

 butchers; while, on the contrary, among those affected with other 

 forms of tuberculosis localized to the skin of the hands, none be- 

 longed to this calling. Liebreich agreed with the view taken, and 

 said he had been able to assure himself that verrucous tuberculosis 

 of the skin was much more common among those whose duties re- 

 quire handling tuberculosis meats than among others. Blaschko 

 spoke of the case of a cook seen by him in whom a tuberculous lesion 

 followed the prick of a piece of bone. 



9—6—1902 



