TUBERCULOSIS. 399 



tubercle bacilli have always been introduced acci- 

 dentally, with the innocuous material to which the 

 result has commonly been ascribed. 



Toussaint, who has ascribed the disease to a 

 micrococcus, furnished our author cultures of this 

 micrococcus obtained by inoculating blood-serum 

 or rabbit bouillon with the blood of a tuberculous 

 animal. This material was injected into three 

 rabbits, two guinea-pigs, one cat, and one mouse. 

 In no instance did tuberculosis ensue. The injec- 

 tions in Cheyne's experiments were made, when- 

 ever practicable, into the anterior chamber of the 

 eye, with a syringe which had been purified by 

 heat. Cultivations of the micrococci obtained from 

 Toussaint were also made and injected into nine 

 rabbits and three guinea-pigs, with a negative 

 result. The tuberculous organs of animals ex- 

 perimented upon by Toussaint were examined by 

 Cheyne, who found in them, often in large num- 

 bers, the bacillus of Koch, but no micrococci ; 

 although some of these animals had developed 

 tuberculosis as a result of inoculation by Toussaint, 

 with cultures of the micrococcus described by him. 

 This result is ascribed to accidental inoculation 

 with the spores of the tubercle bacillus, which 

 Cheyne shows would not be destroyed by the 

 method of disinfection upon which Toussaint has 

 relied, namely, the cleansing of his syringe with 

 an aqueous solution of carbolic acid. 



Twelve rabbits were also inoculated with culti- 

 vations of the tubercle bacillus obtained from Koch. 



