BY THE HON. A. NORTON. 109 



rife, consists of infants, which during the first year of their Hfe, 

 and sometimes for a longer period, are suckled at the breast ; 

 after this, however, the diet is extremely mixed, and as a 

 rule it is extremely unsuitable ; but it is in by far the larger 

 proportion of cases, even amongst the poorer classes, partially, 

 at any rate, composed of cows' milk. During [this first year of 

 their life, children with tuberculosis of the mesenteric glands, 

 or of those glands connected with the intestines, form a very 

 small proportion of the cases of infantile tuberculosis. Whilst 

 the child is suckled by its mother there is little tubercle, 

 but after the first year there is a very rapid rise in this 

 mortality from tubercle. It is a somewhat singular fact 

 that although tuberculosis is frequently met with in young 

 married women, tubercular disease of the breast is extremely 

 rare — so rare, indeed, that Dr. Hubermaas, who took great 

 interest in this subject, v\'as able to collect the records of only 

 some eight cases. In cattle, on the other hand, where the 

 mammary gland carries on its functions when the animals are 

 placed under conditions which are far from healthy, or at any rate 

 far from normal, this tubercular disease of the milk gland is 

 not by any means of infrequent occurrence." 



Having quoted this learned authority so fully in connection 

 with the danger of using msufficiently cooked flesh and unboiled 

 milk of tuberculous cows, I must point out that he is too well 

 informed and too honest to represent that these means of in- 

 fection are so important as we are sometimes asked to believe by 

 persons who represent one side of the case only. All he says is 

 that the alimentary canal " is probably the next most important 

 channel of infection." Prohuhlij the next most important '. The 

 most important channel of all he shows, as Carl Fraenkel also 

 does, is the phthisical person with whom so many others come 

 into contact. He refers to the experiments of Dr. Eansome, 

 Dr. Wilhams, and more particularly Dr. George Cornet, which 

 leave no doubt whatever as to the infection which a phthisical 

 patient distributes. Eeferring to these, he says — " The bacilli 

 are not only exhaled, in small numbers no doubt, but he finds 

 that they are also contained in very considerable numbers in the 

 dried sputum obtained from handkerchiefs, bed linen used by 

 phthisical patients, and in the sputum which has made its way on 



