TUBERCULOSIS. 391 



case, however, nodules at the apex of the lung, 

 and the wall of a small cavity formed of shreds 

 of necrotic tissue, of dense cheesy material, and in 

 the outermost layers of tubercle tissue and ordi- 

 nary dense connective tissue, proved to contain 

 the bacillus in abundance in the ivatts and edges of 

 the cavity, and in a few of the dense areas of coagu- 

 lation necrosis in its immediate vicinity. But in 

 the diffuse tubercle tissue, in the zones of simple 

 pneumonia around the nodules, in the scattered 

 fibrous tubercles in the lung and pleura, and in 

 the well-formed tubercles in the bronchial glands, 

 no bacilli could be found. 



Koch has received ample confirmation as to the 

 presence of the bacillus described by him, in 

 phthisical sputum ; and its absence from the spu- 

 tum of patients suffering from other diseases seems 

 to be pretty well established, although Spina of 

 Vienna claims that other bacteria behave pre- 

 cisely towards staining agents as do the bacilli of 

 Koch ; and, consequently, that the color-test can- 

 not be relied upon for distinguishing this bacillus 

 from the ordinary bacteria of putrefaction. The 

 writer's observations are entirely in favor of the 

 statement of the discoverer of the tubercle bacilli 

 as to their peculiar color reaction when treated by 

 Ehrlich's method; but, like many others, he has 

 not been successful in demonstrating them by the 

 method first proposed by Koch. 



A recent writer 1 has collected the statistics, as 



1 Dr. Ferguson, of Canada. See Med. Record, New York, July 21, 

 1883, p. 77. 



