Papers on Medicine. Ptboc Health and Sanitation 77 



whereas of the civilians applviiis: for military service, 

 2.34 per cent were fonnd tnbercnlons, only .05 per cent 

 of those who came np for demoblization were found to 

 have tnbereulosis. 



The facts that were to be learned from the examina- 

 tions and care of some two thousand of these cases are 

 the basis of my optimistic feeling toward the tuberculosis 

 situation. These facts I will now discuss in a somewhat 

 didactic manner. 



CAUSATIVE OKGAXISMS 



Although we handled a large amount of tuberculous 

 material in the laboratoiy and our work naturally led us 

 to constant review and perusal of recent literature on the 

 subject, yet I am unable to note that the war developed 

 any new facts relative to morphology, colony gi-owth, 

 motility, staining reactions or viability in vitro of the 

 causative organism of tuberculosis. 



As to the character of the toxin produced by this or- 

 ganism, the work of Vaughn,^ wherein he identifies the 

 various split products and determines their toxicity, ap- 

 pears to be the last and accepted facts of the situation. 



LIFE OF THE OBGAXISM WITHIN THE HUMAX BODY 



In a consideration of the organism and its probable 

 entrance into the body, the burden of argmnent leads one 

 to think that the tubercle bacillus finds its entrance into 

 the human organism through the oral passage, rather 

 than through the respiratoiy tract as I had formally be- 

 lieved. It may enter on food or in the food, or on the 

 hands of the baby, soiled from the oral excreta of the 

 adult carrier. Once within the oral passage, it possibly 

 not infrequently finds its first point of localization in the 

 tonsils.' 



The paths of transmission from tissue to tissue in the 

 bodv have been for a Ion? time, as regards the tubercle 



« Protein Split Products in Relation to Immunity and Diseases, 

 Vaughn. 1913. Chap. 8. 



" Bacillus Tuberculosis in the Tonsils of Children Clinically Non- 

 Tuberculous. R. S. Austin in American Journal of Diseases of Children. 

 July, 1919. 



Tuberculosis of the Ear. Throat and Xose. Arthur E. Prince and W. 

 G. Bain. IlUnois Medical Journal. September, 1910. 



