DR. J. M. BEATTIE'S PAPER 167 



between the ages of 5 and 16 out of 33 cases 20 

 are classed as cervical adenitis and 10 were alimen- 

 tary in origin. In adults only 9 cases out of 686 

 were due to the bovine bacillus, and of these 4 were 

 alimentary in origin. This table also shows that in 

 children at least one-third of the cases of tuberculosis 

 were due to the bovine bacillus, whereas in adults 

 only i '3 per cent, can be traced to this type of 

 organism. It may be claimed that some of the cases 

 of cervical adenitis may have been infected' by inhala- 

 tion of the bacilli, but the large proportion due to the 

 bovine bacillus certainly suggests infection of the 

 tonsils and adenoid tissue by the accumulation in 

 their crypts of food containing the bovine bacillus. 

 The alimentary infection is undoubtedly due to the 

 ingestion of infected food. 



Boviard [2] in 1908, at the Sixth International 

 Congress on Tuberculosis, reported the post-mortem 

 evidence which had been collected in Great Britain 

 in the course of almost twenty years, and this showed 

 that 20*3 per cent, of all fatal cases of tuberculosis in 

 children were in all probability infected through the 

 alimentary canal, and presumably by food. 



Again, in the final Report on the Royal Commis- 

 sion on Tuberculosis, we find that in 19 out of 24 

 cases, in one series in which the bovine type of 

 bacillus was found, the primary lesions were con- 

 nected with the alimentary canal, but we can go 

 further, for, from this Report, it would appear that 

 22 per cent, of persons dying before the age of 15 

 years from tuberculosis of various organs were 

 infected with the bovine bacillus, and of these cases 

 80 per cent, resulted from lesions in the alimentary 

 canal. 



Delepine [3] in a recent paper has made the fol- 

 lowing abstract from a most important research by 

 Dr. John Fraser, which is based on an examination 

 of cases of tuberculosis in bones and joints occurring 



