ELIMINATION THKOUGH KIDNEYS. 67 



peared as a diffuse rniliary tuberculosis of the peritoneum, omen- 

 turn, spleen and liver; the milk of cows suffering from advanced 

 tuberculosis proved the most virulent. 



Ernst (Medical News, Sept. 28, 1889) examined 114 samples of 

 milk obtained from 36 cows suffering with tuberculosis of some 

 organ other than the udder; 17 samples were found to contain the 

 specific bacillus. These 17 specimens came from 10 cows. 



Inoculation with the infected milk produced the disease in 50 

 per cent, of the cases treated. Feeding experiments were also 

 made, with the result of inducing the disease in a number of calves 

 and young pigs. These experiments furnish positive proof that 

 the bacillus of tuberculosis is eliminated through the mammary 

 secretion even in cases where the gland is not the seat of any tuber- 

 cular lesion. 



Ribbert found, twenty-four hours after injecting osteomyelitic 

 cocci directly into the circulation of animals, the microbes in all of 

 the internal organs ; later, only in the kidney. Liibbert found the 

 staphylococci in osteomyelitis frequently in the urine. Lebedoff 

 saw the streptococcus of erysipelas in the skin and umbilical cord 

 of a child born eight days after its mother had recovered from an 

 attack of erysipelas. 



Clinical observation as well as experimental research has shown 

 that in all localized infective processes the leucocytes act as an 

 advance-guard in protecting the tissues against the ingress of the 

 microbes by mechanically obstructing the way ; later, the active 

 granulation tissue performs the same function. As inclusion of the 

 microbe in the cell protoplasm may have a great deal to do with the 

 destruction of the microbes, it is correct to speak figuratively of a 

 struggle of cells against microbes. When the microbes have 

 become disseminated throughout the organism by the circulating 

 blood, they are also brought to the excretory organs, through which 

 many of them are eliminated without having lost their virulence 

 during the passage through the body. 



