53 



Woodhead was able to produce the disease in two rabbits 

 by inoculating the raw juice from the rib muscles of a diseased 

 ■cow where the tuberculous pleura had been stripped off by 

 the butcher, but when he used the juice from the thigh 

 muscles of the same cow he was not able to produce tuber- 

 culosis. He, therefore, shows that the parts in close 

 proximity to the disease may be contaminated while the 

 parts at a distance may not. 



Bollinger aod others found the juice expressed from the 

 muscular tissue non-infective in 51 out of 58 carcases ex- 

 amined, and in these cases the lesions present were very 

 extensive. 



Dr. Martin's experiments show that in generalised tubercu- 

 losis the meat is dangerous, and in local tuberculosis the meat 

 may be contaminated by the butcher's knife. 



Still the Commissioners " are prepared to believe that if 

 sufficient discrimination and care were exercised in taking 

 meat from tuberculus cattle, a great deal of meat from them 

 might without danger be consumed by the community." This 

 recommendation is more in touch with the general belief that 

 now exists — that the measures adopted by the Glasgow and 

 Paris authorities are altogether too stringent. 



In Germany it is not usual to condemn meat where there 

 is only one organ affected if the animal is not emaciated, but 

 if the animal is emaciated the flesh is held to be injurious. 



3. Inocijlation. — This is fortunately not a very common 

 mode of infection. It has followed from a cut on the finger 

 with a broken spittoon used by a phthisical patient. Medical 

 men doing ^osi ?}iorfe??is, butchers, and cooks have been in- 

 fected, in the execution of their duties, in this way. It is 

 said to have resulted in two cases from tatooing where the 

 saliva of a phthisical patient was used. ^ It has occurred in 

 Jews after the rite of circumcision being performed by an 

 infected priest. In these inoculations there is generally 

 nothing but a local tuberculosis set up, which ends in a 

 suppuration, no permanent bad result following. Although 

 rare in man, it is the general method of infection in experi- 

 menting with the lower animals, 



4. Heredity. — The question whether tuberculosis can be 

 transmitted from parent to child is one which authorities are 

 divided upon. Many observers hold that the disease cannot 

 be transmitted but only a predisposition, and heredity to 

 such as Yirchow and Frankel only means greater predis- 

 position, but to others it means the actual transmission of 

 the disease. It is, however, a fact that amongst some of the 



* British Medical Journal, June 1st, 1895. 



