60 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



of animals becoming infected through the cow- 

 man who tended them being consumptive. He 

 slept in a loft over the cows, and his tuberculous 

 sputum in the form of dust was conveyed to the 

 stalls beneath and so spread the infection. 



It has been stated on high authority that 

 domestic pets such as parrots may contract con- 

 sumption from their masters, and that no less than 

 thirty-six per cent, of these birds brought to the 

 veterinary college in Berlin are found to be suffer- 

 ing from tuberculosis. 



In that much -dreaded South African cattle 

 disease, rinderpest, the infection, contrary to what 

 is found in the case of tuberculous animals, is 

 principally spread by the materies morbi being 

 liberated in the air expired by afflicted cattle, the 

 contagious area surrounding an infected animal 

 extending to as much as a hundred yards and more. 

 Again, as regards pleuro-pneumonia in cattle, the 

 contagion is given off in the air expired, and 

 owing to the length of time which elapses before 

 the lung becomes completely healed and healthy, 

 even after a period of from six to nine months, 

 {he expired air may still prove a source of in- 

 fection. 



In an official report on the open-air treatment 

 of consumption in Germany a case is mentioned 

 in which the patient, a farmer by occupation, had 



