290 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Oct,, 



disorder as Asiatic cholera, yellow fever or smallpox as 

 annually occur therein from tuberculosis, there would be 

 such a popular uprising as to insure the adoption of 

 every known measure for its control or eradication; but 

 against the insidious inroads of this familiar scourge, 

 with all the long standing and firmly fixed prejudices 

 and erroneous ideas to combat that must first be over- 

 come, the case is otherwise. As it is, it is necessary 

 to educate the masses as well as to enlist the services 

 of the medical profession, and to secure the adoption by 

 national, state and municipal authorities of such regula- 

 tions as are necessary to accomplish the end in view. 

 This is what advanced writers and workers of the day 

 are endeavoring to do. 



While many are seeking diligently after a specific for 

 the cure of tuberculosis, and while we know that it is 

 cured in a much larger per cent of cases than was at one 

 time supposed, others, recognizing the difficulties yet to 

 be encountered in the management and cure of the dis- 

 ease, and believing that it is more blessed to prevent than 

 to cure, have turned their attention to questions of pro- 

 phylaxis. And, thanks to Robert Koch and his co-labor- 

 ers, the advances that have been made in our knowledge 

 of the nature and mode of propagation of tuberculosis 

 since the discovery of its essential cause — the " bacillus 

 tuberculosis" — we are in a position to institute measures 

 which, if faithfully carried out, cannot but greatly dimin- 

 ish and perhaps eventually stamp out this monstrous 

 scourge. 



WHAT THE BACILLUS IS. 



The first essential to success in prophylaxis is a clear 

 understanding of the biological character of the infectious 

 agent, the conditions under which it is capable of setting- 

 up morbid processes and the channels of infection. 



The bacillus tuberculosis is a minute rodshaped veget- 



