I 



DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 231 



be found possible. Indeed, we ought to be most scnipulously careful about all 

 such matters, especially when we realise how much may depend upon the due 

 preservation of the life and good health of each individual. 



For many of the following remarks we are indebted to the excellent work of 

 Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, who delivered two lectures on " Tuberculosis " before 

 the Hon. the Grocers' Company (vide The Lancet of July 14th and July 2l8t 

 1888) in the University of London on July 9th, 1888. 



It seems that tubercles, whether recent or caseous in any part of the body, 

 must be looked upon as centres from which infection of any part may take 

 place. Indeed, tuberculosis may be looked upon as the result of the effects of 

 a specific virus acting upon the tissues which are not able to cope with and 

 destroy it, and very probably it is necessary for the development of the tubercle- 

 bacilli that the conditions should be favourable to the existence of those bacilli, 

 just as in the cases of pyaemia and other allied diseases the conditions must also 

 be favourable for the development of those maladies. For instance, there must 

 probably be some weak point in the epithelial surface wherefrom the bacilli may 

 gain access to the deeper tissues in suflBcient numbers to be able to attack 

 successfully in the struggle which ensues betwixt the cells and the bacilli. 

 Those deeper tissues also must be in some measure unable to hold their own, 

 their cells no longer having the power to deal successfully with the numerous 

 bacilli which find their way to them. 



The bacilli of tuberculosis are not as a rule present in suflBcient numbers in 

 the atmosphere to render them really dangerous to healthy persons breathing 

 the air. Out of 127 cases of tuberculosis in children it was found that in 43 



stances there was tubercular ulceration of the intestine, and that in no less 

 than 100 cases the mesenteric glands were found to be in some stage or other of 

 tubercular degeneration. In 14 cases the glands only were affected, i.e. there 

 was no tubercle found in any other part of the body. In these cases the glands 

 had become calcified, but in the other instances the glands were markedly 

 tubercular. There were very few bacilli, and in some cases none could be 

 shown to be present, and the nature of the growth could only be detected by 

 inoculation experiments. According to Dr. Goodhart, caseous or tubercular 

 disease of the mesenteric glands is not uncommonly met with; but yet it is 

 rare in comparison with the consumption of the bowels which so often occurs 

 among the poor. 



As a rule, infants are suckled during the first year of life at the breast, and 

 afterwards the diet is almost invariably in part composed of milk. Now it is 

 a most significant and noteworthy fact that after the first year there is such 

 a rapid rise in the number of cases in which the mesenteric glands are affected. 

 Furthermore, although tuberculosis is frequently met with in young married 

 women, still tubercular affection of the breasts is very rare, albeit that Dr. O. 

 Hubermaas has recorded no less than eight cases of such affection of the breasts. 

 In cattle, on the other hand, tubercular affection of the udder is by no means 

 rarely met with. It is clearly the case that tuberculosis may arise from the 

 ingestion of milk, especially in the case of young children. Gerlach fed young 

 animals with milk obtained from tuberculous cows, and in many instances he 

 thereby produced tuberculosis of the alimentary tract or of the mesenteric 

 glands. In another case all the pigs which had been fed on the milk of a 

 tuberculous cow succumbed to tuberculosis, and in another instance an out- 

 break of the disease could be distinctly traced to the milk of three cows in 

 which the udders were markedly affected. Many other observers, including 

 Klebs, Bollinger, Stein, Johne, Bang, Toussaint, Chauveau, Koch, and others, 

 concur in the statement that if the milk of cattle having tubercular udders be 



