74 THE STORY OF THE BACTERIA. 



diseased meat would kill the bacilli, but a large 

 amount of meat is everywhere commonly con- 

 sumed uncooked, or but partially cooked, in 

 the form of sausages or other minced messes. 



Infection with the tubercle bacillus in the 

 intestinal canal is not so liable to occur as in 

 some other parts of the body, even among 

 persons predisposed to the disease. But, 

 nevertheless, the danger from tubercular milk 

 and meat is a very real and a growing one. 



The most frequent seat of affection with the 

 tubercle bacillus is the lungs, and the most 

 common way in which the germs gain access 

 to the respiratory passages is by being 

 breathed in with the dust which is floating in 

 the air in rooms or regions where tubercular 

 persons have been. In other words, tubercu- 

 losis is most commonly acquired by indirect 

 transmission of the tubercle bacilli from man 

 to man through the dust of the air. 



Now the most common way in which the 

 tubercle bacilli get into the air from consump- 

 tive people is this : the little masses of new 

 tissue which form in the lungs where the tu- 

 bercle bacilli are, are not well supplied with 



