( 



Microbic Diseases Indkidiially Considered. 239 



intra uterine propagation appearing rather to depend 

 upon some tubercular alteration of the maternal 

 placenta. Johne has noted the existence of bacillar 

 lesions in the liver and lung of a foetus found in a 

 phthisical cow. MM. Malvoz and Brouwier have 

 communicated two cases of cons^enital tuberculosis 

 in the calf; the first of these cases is quite convinc- 

 ing : the fcetug was removed from the healthy womb 

 of a cow affected with the generalized disease; the 

 second describes the case of a calf six weeks old, the 

 origin of which was not determined, but in which 

 the lesions were regarded by the authors as congenital 

 because they were located in the same organs as in 

 the first case, that is, in the liver, and hepatic and 

 bronchial lymph nodes. From the absence of intes- 

 tinal and pulmonary lesions it was inferred that the 

 infection could only have taken place through the 

 umbilical vein. 



The presence of the bacillus having been demon- 

 strated in the semen, some authors have been led to 

 believe in the direct transmission from father to off- 

 spring by infection of the ovum. The special locali- 

 zation in the liver in well observed cases of congenital 

 tuberculosis contradicts this manner of view. 



The tubercular virus may be directly transmitted 

 from a diseased to a healthy individual through sex- 

 ual intercourse, either from the female to the male, 

 or inversely. 



Tuberculosis is usually communicated indirectly. 

 The virulent matters rejected by the diseased (sputa 

 of phthisical patients, nasal discharge and excrements 

 of animals) and deposited on the ground, becoming 

 dried and pulverulent, are carried with the air into 



