2io MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



the germ. We have instances of this wretched class 

 in the scrofulous idiot and in the children of those 

 families where the offspring die off one after another, 

 soon after birth, of various tubercular affections. 



The sources of infection by the tubercle bacillus 

 are almost innumerable. It may be inhaled with 

 matter floating in the air, or be introduced through 

 any cut, scratch, or other breach in the skin or 

 mucous surface, or it may be taken into the system 

 with food. Cattle are specially liable to tubercular 

 disease. Herr von Gossler, in his speech before the 

 Prussian Diet, stated that I o per cent, of all horned 

 cattle slaughtered for food are tuberculous. This 

 estimate may be high, but it is certain that a vast 

 number of the animals are tuberculous, and that the 

 consumption of the flesh of these diseased animals 

 is one of the greatest dangers to which the human 

 species is exposed. The milk of such cattle often 

 swarms with bacilli, and the use of this, or of butter 

 made from such milk, is dangerous in the extreme. 



To lessen as far as possible the risk of infection, 

 the ventilation of all rooms in which either persons 

 or animals live or work should be strictly attended to. 

 Living or sleeping in the same room with one suffer- 

 ing from tubercle should never be permitted. The 

 sputa of phthisical individuals should not be ejected 

 here, there, and everywhere, but received in a vessel 

 containing some strong disinfectant, and be burnt 

 or buried afterwards. Cattle kept for dairy purposes 

 should be regularly examined, and those found tainted 



