VETERINARY MEDICINE. 483 



with the bile, and the retention of tubercle bacilli in the lymphatic glands 

 of vaccinated animals. In a previous communication (E. S. R., 21, p. 683) it 

 was shown that cattle which have been hyperimmunized by intravenous treat- 

 ment with large doses (up to 200 mg.) of the bovine type of bacillus, which 

 were cultivated successively on media containing ox bile, eliminated tubercle 

 bacilli with their excreta. The same elimination was noted with tubercular 

 cattle. 



Thinking that possibly some of the tubercle bacilli were eliminated by way 

 of the bile duct, the authors conducted experiments with 2 heifers having arti- 

 ficial permanent biliary fistula. These animals were inoculated with tubercle 

 bacilli and the bile was withdrawn several times during the days following 

 the injections. The first heifer received 4 intravenous injections of 10 mg. each 

 of the bovine tubercle bacilli. The bile was then injected into 260 guinea 

 pigs, but only 12 were found tubercular. Some guinea pigs also received in- 

 jections of the feces and 2 of them became tubercular. The heifer was killed 

 after about 4 months' time, or 2 days after the last injection of tubercle bacilli 

 was given, and on autopsy was found to be in very good condition, not a single 

 tuberculous focus being found after a very careful examination. After the 

 first inoculation no tubercle bacilli were eliminated with the bile, and probably 

 the power of elimination was established only after a certain state of tolerance 

 was reached. "This retention of bacilli after the first inoculation is observed 

 in healthy cattle inoculated with a dose of bovine tubercle bacilli sufficiently 

 large to determine an acute and rapidly fatal tuberculosis. The authors have 

 shown that bacilli are not eliminated during the febrile period of the disease, 

 but that bacilli are present in the excrement from the commencement of the 

 febrile phase up to the time of death." 



The second heifer was given 3 mg. of virulent bovine tubercle bacilli intra- 

 venously, and a number of guinea pigs were inoculated with bile as in the pre- 

 ceding case. " The animal's temperature remained normal until the sixteenth 

 day, when there was a sudden rise. There was fever until the twenty-eighth 

 day, when the heifer died. All the guinea pigs were killed 2 months later, and 

 not one of the 78 inoculated during the first 19 days was found to be tuber- 

 culous. Of the 31 inoculated subsequently 15 were found to be diseased. 

 There can therefore be no doubt that during the febrile period bacilli are 

 eliminated with the bile in large numbers. The authors think that their ex- 

 periments prove that cattle that are affected with tuberculosis, whether open 

 or not, or that have been vaccinated with attenuated or human bacilli, are 

 capable of eliminating by the hepato-intestinal tract a larger or smaller num- 

 ber of tubercle bacilli which, according to their origin or degree of virulence, 

 may be a source of danger to healthy people compelled to live under conditions 

 which make it impossible for them to protect themselves against contami- 

 nation." 



As to the retention of tubercle bacilli in the lymphatic glands, it is pointed 

 out that on a previous occasion (E. S. R., 20, p. 877) sound laboratory animals 

 which had been rendered immune would not react, in the way of forming lesions, 

 to an injection of virulent bacilli, nor would they react toward tuberculin, but 

 when slaughtered some 16 to 18 months later, tubercle bacilli could be noted 

 In the bronchial and mediastinal glands. This was proved by the guinea pig 

 Inoculation test. 



This tolerance which the animals had acquired toward virulent bacilli was, 

 according to the authors, due to the power which the animals had acquired 

 of slowly eliminating the organisms from their systems, being unable to destroy 

 them by the phagocytic and similar processes. The authors are also under 



