330 TUBERCULOSIS 



Sexual Intercourse. Sexual intercourse in cattle, one of the par- 

 ticipants having been affected with tuberculosis of the sexual organs, 

 has led to an infection of the healthy animal, but such observations 

 have been very rare. There is not the slightest proof that tuberculosis 

 is ever spread through spermatozoa from the male to the developing 

 ovum. Tuberculosis, however, is occasionally spread from a tuber- 

 culous mother to the offspring through the placenta. These cases are 

 rare in human beings, but more common in cattle. 



The question of intertransmissibility of human and bovine and 

 mammalian and avain tuberculosis will be discussed in another 

 chapter. 



QUESTIONS. 



1. What is the derivation of the word tuberculosis? What is the cause of 

 the disease in its various forms? 



2. Who furnished the earliest description of the symptomatology, etc., of 

 pulmonary tuberculosis ? 



3. What is the derivation of the term phthisis? 



4. Who made the first inoculation experiments with what was considered 

 tubercular material on man? What was the outcome of these experiments? 



5. Describe the experiments of Villemin and their results. 



6. Discuss the prevalence of tuberculosis among human beings. 



7. To what percentage are tubercular lesions found in man according to 

 postmortem statistics? 



8. Discuss the prevalence of tuberculosis among uncivilized nations living 

 in a wild state. What if such nations come into contact with civilized people 

 among whom tuberculosis is of common occurrence? 



9. Is tuberculosis among human beings on the increase or decrease? 



10. What is probably the most important single method of combating the 

 spread of tuberculosis among human beings? 



11. What animals suffer from tuberculosis? 



12. How is tuberculosis most commonly spread among human beings? 



13. How most commonly among cattle? 



14. How most commonly among hogs? 



15. Discuss the various routes of infection by which tuberculosis invades the 

 body of susceptible beings. 



16. What are the two different views as to the most common mode of develop- 

 ment of pulmonary tuberculosis? 



17. Why is it improbable that pulmonary tuberculosis in man is generally 

 due to the ingestion in infancy and childhood of bovine tubercle bacilli? 



