EoBEBTOX. — Millc as a Vehicle of Disease. 581 



160,000 deaths are annually registered as due to it. In Paris, 

 about 20 per cent, of all deaths result from it ; in Vienna, 

 15 per cent, of all deaths, but in some quarters of the town 

 no less than 90 per cent. In New Zealand, during 1888, the 

 death-rate from tubercular disease was rather more than 11 

 per cent. 



I mention tliese figures to give some idea of the magni- 

 tude of the evil ; but the deaths represent only a part. We 

 must take into consideration the suffering which precedes 

 death, and the loss to the community from the impairment 

 of the usefulness of the sufferers, and from the necessity 

 of others being engaged in nursing and attending to their 

 wants. 



The popular idea regarding consumption is, I think, that 

 of a wasting disease in which the lungs especially are affected. 

 It is now know'n that other organs of the body become diseased 

 from the -same cause — a specific germ, the Bacillus tuber- 

 culosis, this name being applied to it because its presence and 

 ■development in any part of the body gives rise after a time 

 to the formation of little diseased masses known technically as 

 tubercles. 



There is no doubt that certain individuals and certain 

 families are much more prone to consumption than others, 

 but it would appear that it is necessary that in every case the 

 specific germ should find its way into the body of the person 

 affected. When once it has entered the body, should it be 

 deposited in any part the vital power of which is lowered by 

 disease, by heredity, or other cause, in that part of the body 

 it is especially liable to develope and "then spread to other 

 parts of the body. How then, we may inquire, does the 

 gei'JTi get into the system? Experiment and research show 

 that it may enter the body either through the air-passages or 

 through the alimentary tract (the stomach and bowels). It is 

 with the latter that we have to concern ourselves to-night in 

 considering what part milk may play in the spread of tubercu- 

 losis. 



Among other facts which establish the view that tlie germ 

 of tuberculosis may enter the system through the alimentary 

 tract I may mention the following: A consumptive patient, 

 being recommended to live in the coiintry, went to a farm- 

 house at which a considerable number of poultry were kept. 

 The spittoon used by him being emptied in the farm-yard, the 

 fowls were in the habit of devouring the expectoration. After 

 a few weeks an epidemic of consumption broke out among the 

 poultry, causing a mortality of about fifty in three or four 

 months. 



Experiments conducted witli a view to confirm the suspi- 

 -cion that food could convey tuberculosis have given a positive 



