756 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 



died after a prolonged illness caused by multiple tubercular 

 abscesses." 



I tbink tbe above cases afford sufficient evidence of the 

 danger of communication of tuberculosis by wounds ; but to 

 avoid it concerns more tbe surgeon than the general public. 



The third way on which the tubercle bacillus attacks the 

 human subject is, as above mentioned, by the alimentary 

 canal by injestion with the food. It appears to me to be of 

 very great importance, not only on account of the frequency 

 of its occurrence, but esj)ecially because we are able to guard 

 against it if proper precautions are taken. By the foregoing- 

 it has become apparent that in whatever organ the tubercle 

 bacillus will be conveyed there might be the danger of 

 infection, which takes place if the cells of the attacked organ 

 do not offer sufficient resistance to the invading bacillus. 



We therefore, a priori, expect that food containing 

 originally tubercle bacillus, or mixed afterwards with material 

 that contains them, will be a source of infection in the first 

 place for the digestive organs. As an illustration of this 

 reasoning I only wish to draw the attention to the frequent 

 occurrence of tuberculous ulcerations of the bowels in 

 phthisical patients in the later stages of the disease being- 

 caused undoubtedly by the continuous swallowing of the 

 expectoration which abounds with tubercle bacilli. But 

 where do we find tubercular infection of the digestive organs 

 in healthy persons? Tuberculosis is not confined to the 

 human race ; it attacks nearly all the animals the flesh of 

 which is used for human food, cattle especially being sus- 

 ceptible to the disease. The identity of the disease in human 

 subjects and in cattle has first been vindicated by Professor 

 Bollinger of Munich, and is now corroborated by most 

 authors. The identity of the tubercle bacillus in cattle and 

 in men in its anatomical and merphological characters ; the 

 identity of their pecuhar susceptibility to aniline dyes ; the 

 identity of their appearance under the microscope ; the identity 

 of their growth on nutrient fluids, did not allow any other 

 conclusion to be arrived at but that tuberculosis in cattle and 

 tuberculosis in the human subject is one and the same disease. 

 Moreover, it has been proved by numerous experiments that 

 cattle can be made tuberculous by mixing expectoration of 

 phthisical patients to their food, whereupon, as Noeard 

 demonstrated, tuberculosis developed along the whole lining 

 of mucous membrane of the digestive tract, thus showing 



