Bovine Tuberculosis in Man. 



Twelve of the 60 patients had tuberculosis of the mesenteric 

 glands, slight intestinal tuberculosis, and tuberculous meningitis. 

 The 12 cases were severe fatal affections. 



In 14 cases the autopsy revealed tuberculosis of the mesen- 

 teric lymph glands with the bovine type of bacilli, but this was 

 found accidentally following other causes of death, as diphtheria, 

 scarlet fever, measles, and pneumonia. 



In the 21 adults the bovine type of the disease was established 

 three times in pulmonary tuberculosis with expectorations, once 

 in a primary abdominal tuberculosis and pulmonary tuberculosis, 

 once in an infection of the buccal mucous membrane and cervical 

 lymph glands, once each in tuberculosis of the knee joints, the kid- 

 neys and the peritoneum, and finally the bacillus of bovine type 

 was isolated from three cases of lupus, two cases of skin tuber- 

 culosis, and five cases of tuberculosis verrucosa cutis in butchers. 

 Besides these instances the bovine type of tubercle bacillus was 

 isolated three times from the mesenteric glands of adults. 



In two cases of phthisis the bovine tubercle bacillus was found 

 in association with the human type. 



Of the total of 138 cases, 56 were fatal, and 89 could be ex- 

 plained with certainty or with the greatest probability as inges- 

 tion tuberculosis. The other forms of tuberculosis, with the ex- 

 ception of the skin tuberculosis of the butchers and of one milker, 

 may also probably be traced to the same mode of infection. 



Weber deduces from his findings that the danger of becoming 

 infected with tubercle bacilli of cattle is great for the individual, 

 but is only slight for the human race as a whole. 



Kossel reports in the German Medical Weekly relative to the 

 number of cases of animal tuberculosis in man as compared with 

 the human type of tuberculosis, and observed that in 1602 cases 

 of human tuberculosis the bovine type appeared as the infective 

 agent in 126 cases, the human type alone in 1464 cases, the human 

 and bovine type in association nine times, and the avian type of 

 tubercle bacillus three times. Therefore in about 8.6% of human 

 tuberculosis, bacilli of animal origin were found, and in about 8% 

 of these they were of the bovine character. If however the most 

 frequent form of tuberculosis of man is considered, namely pul- 

 monary tuberculosis, then the bovine type can be demonstrated 

 only in about .6% of the cases, whereas in the other forms of 

 tuberculosis it may be found in 16% of the cases. 



Tuberculosis of bovine origin occurs most frequently in chil- 

 dren in which tuberculosis of the cervical glands is caused in about 

 40% of the cases from infections with the bovine type, and tuber- 

 culosis of the mensenteric glands may be traced to the same type in 

 40 to 50% of the cases. A portion of these affections, as has al- 

 ready been mentioned, may terminate fatally. Among the fatal 

 forms of tuberculosis in children 76% are caused by the human 

 type and 24% by the bovine form. The meningitis type of the 



