90 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



factions, especially in children, are due to milk from 

 infected cows, and that the danger should be guarded 

 against. 



In man the most common form of tuberculous infec- 

 tion is that of the lung. In this situation the bacilli 

 set up destructive inflammatory changes, and as a 

 result of these a considerable quantity of sputum is 

 usually coughed up. This sputum is loaded with tubercle 

 bacilli, and is, therefore, highly infectious. During the 

 act of coughing and sneezing tiny particles of infected 

 sputum are scattered into the air and may be inhaled by 

 other persons in the vicinity. Or these infected particles 

 may lodge on the furniture, hangings, floor, etc., in the 

 form of dust, and so again constitute a grave menace to 

 others. In tuberculosis of the intestine (tuberculous 

 enteritis) tubercle bacilli are found in large quantities 

 in the feces, and this source of infection must be guarded 

 against. For that matter, even in ordinary pulmonary 

 tuberculosis tubercle bacilli are usually found in the 

 feces, owing to the fact that the patients swallow some 

 of their sputum. 



There is hardly an organ which may not be attacked by 

 the tubercle bacillus. Tuberculosis of the spine, or Pott's 

 disease, is the common cause of hunch-back; tuberculosis 

 of the meninges (tuberculous meningitis) is familiar to us 

 as hydrocephalus or water-on-the-brain, met with in in- 

 fancy; tuberculosis of the hip-joint is usually called, for 

 short, "hip disease." Other common forms of tuberculous 

 infection are tuberculous peritonitis, tuberculous pleurisy, 

 tuberculosis of the kidney, tuberculosis of the bladder, 

 tuberculosis of the larynx, tuberculosis of the skin, tuber- 

 culosis of the eye, tuberculosis of bone, gland tuberculosis, 

 etc. 



