June 14, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



the founder of this university, and his wife, have provided such op- 

 portunity and incentive here as follows : — 



In addition to all previous gifts of the donor, and apart from the 

 permanent funds of the university, full tuition of two hundred 

 dollars each for thirty meritorious students will be paid into the 

 treasury. For eight of these students, thus freed from tuition, Mr. 

 Clark has also established fellowships yielding each holder four 

 hundred dollars per annum, and eight more fellowships yielding 

 each holder two hundred dollars per annum. These, with eight 

 free scholarships as above provided, will be known as the " Jonas 

 G.Clark Scholarships and Fellowships " respectively. Mrs. Clark 

 has established two fellowships yielding four hundred dollars each, 

 and two fellowships yielding two hundred dollars each, per annum. 

 These, with the two remaining scholarships, will be known as the 

 " Mrs. Jonas G. Clark Fellowships and Scholarships " respectively. 

 These six latter are especially provided for the department of psy- 

 chology, while the twenty-four presented by Mr. Clark are to be 

 distributed among the other four departments at the discretion of 

 the president and faculty. 



The founder and his wife unite with the trustees and president in 

 inviting sympathy and practical co-operation in the multiplication 

 of such aids, large or small, temporary or permanent, here at the 

 outset. Both scholarships and fellowships are open only to stu- 

 dents in one or more of the five departments announced, and are 

 renewable annually. They are designed to encourage promising 

 young men, graduates of colleges and others, who have developed 

 a preference for particular lines of study in which they desire to 

 attain still further proficiency. 



While intended to remove pecuniary hinderances in the way of 

 such students, both scholarships and fellowships are primarily 

 honors, awarded without reference to pecuniary needs. Thus, 

 those desiring to do so may relinquish the emolument, and retain 

 the title of scholar and fellow. 



A plain, substantial, and well-appointed central building, 204 by 

 114 feet, four stories high, and with superior facilities for heating, 

 lighting, and ventilation, has been constructed of brick and granite, 

 and finished throughout in oak. A chemical laboratory, designed 

 after consulting many experts and plans of recent European build- 

 ings, and containing about fifty rooms, is nearly completed. The 

 foundations of a still larger department building are laid. 



The work of instruction will begin in the five departments above 

 announced, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1889. 



TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 



Drs. Prudden, Biggs, and Loomis, pathologists to the Board 

 of Health of the city of New York, having been requested to formu- 

 late a brief and comprehensive statement regarding the contagious- 

 ness of tuberculosis and the means of protection therefrom, have 

 submitted the following : — 



The disease known as tuberculosis, and, when affecting the lungs, 

 as pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption), is very common in the 

 human being, and in certain of the domestic animals, especially 

 cattle. About one-fourth of all deaths occurring in the human 

 being during adult life are caused by it, and nearly one-half of the 

 entire population at some time in life acquires it. The disease is 

 the same in nature in animals and in man, and has the same 

 cause. 



It has been proved beyond a doubt that a living germ, called the 

 "tubercle bacillus," is the cause, and the only cause, of tuber- 

 culosis. It does not seem necessary to state the facts upon which 

 this assertion is based, for the observation first made by Robert 

 Koch in 18S2 has been confirmed so often and so completely that 

 it now constitutes one of the most absolutely demonstrated facts in 

 medicine. 



Tuberculosis may affect any organ of the body, but most fre- 

 quently first involves the lungs. When the living germs find their 

 way into the body, they multiply there, if favorable conditions for 

 their growth exist, and produce small new growths or nodules 

 (tubercles), which tend to soften. The discharges from these 

 softened tubercles, containing the living germs, are thrown off 

 from the body. In pulmonary tuberculosis these discharges con- 

 stitute, in part, the expectoration. The germs thus thrown off 



do not grow outside the living human or animal body, except 

 under artificial conditions, although they may retain their vitality 

 and virulence for long periods of time, even when thoroughly 

 dried. As tuberculosis can only result from the action of these 

 germs, it follows, from what has just been said, that, when the 

 disease is acquired, it musr result from receiving into the body the 

 living germs that have come from some other human being or 

 animal affected with the disease. 



It has been abundantly established that the disease may be 

 transmitted by meat or milk from the tubercular animal. The 

 milk-glands in milch cows often become affected with the disease 

 when their lungs are involved, and the milk from such animals 

 may contain the living germs, and is capable of producing the dis- 

 ease. Among stall-fed dairy cows, 20 per cent or 30 per cent are 

 sometimes found to be affected with the disease. Tubercular ani- 

 mals are also frequently killed for food, their flesh sometimes con- 

 taining the germs, and, if not thoroughly cooked, it is capable of 

 transmitting the disease. Boiling the milk, or thoroughly cooking 

 the meat, destroys the germs. Although the meat and milk from 

 tubercular animals constitute actual and important sources of 

 danger, the disease is acquired, as a rule, through its communica- 

 tion from man to man. 



Tuberculosis is commonly produced in the lungs (which are the 

 organs most frequently affected) by breathing air in which the 

 living germs are suspended as dust. The material which is coughed 

 up, sometimes in large quantities, by persons suffering from con- 

 sumption, contains these germs, often in enormous numbers. This 

 material, when expectorated, frequently lodges in places where it 

 afterward dries, as on the streets, floors, carpets, clothing, hand- 

 kerchiefs, etc. After drying, in one way or another, it is very apt 

 to become pulverized, and float in the air as dust. 



It has been shown experimentally that dust collected from the 

 most varied points in hospital wards, asylums, prisons, private 

 houses, etc., where consumptive patients are present, is capable of 

 producing tuberculosis in animals when used for their inoculation. 

 Such dust may retain for weeks its power of producing the disease. 

 On the other hand, dust collected from rooms in institutions or 

 houses that have not been occupied by tubercular patients does 

 not produce the disease when used for the inoculation of animals. 



These observations show, that, where there are cases of pulmo- 

 nary tuberculosis, under ordinary conditions the dust surrounding 

 them often contains the " tubercle bacilli," and persons inhaling the 

 air in which this dust is suspended may be taking in the living 

 germs. It should, however, be distinctly understood that the 

 breath of tubercular patients, and the moist sputum, received in 

 proper cups, are not elements of danger, but only the dried and 

 pulverized sputum. The breath and moist sputum are free from 

 danger, because the germs are not dislodged from moist surfaces 

 by currents of air. If all discharges were destroyed at the time of 

 exit from the body, the greatest danger of communication from 

 man to man would be removed. 



It then follows, from what has been said, that tuberculosis is a 

 distinctly preventable disease. It is a well-known fact that some 

 persons, and especially the members of certain families, are par- 

 ticularly liable to tuberculosis ; and this liability can be transmitted 

 from parents to children. So marked and so frequent is this liabil- 

 ity, and so frequent is the development of the disease in particular 

 families, that the affection has long been considered hereditary. 

 We now know that tuberculosis can only be caused by the en- 

 trance of the germ into the body, and that this transmitted liability 

 simply renders the individual a more easy prey to the living germs 

 when once they have gained entrance. 



The frequent occurrence of several cases of pulmonary tuber- 

 culosis in a family is, then, to be explained, not on the supposition 

 that the disease itself has been inherited, but that it has been pro- 

 duced after birth by transmission directly from some affected in- 

 dividual. Where the parents are affected with tuberculosis, the 

 children, from the earliest moments of life, are exposed to the dis- 

 ease under the most favorable conditions for its transmission ; for not 

 only is the dust of the house likely to contain the bacilli, but the rela- 

 tionship also between parents and children, especially between the 

 mother and child, is of that close and intimate nature especially 

 favorable for the transmission by direct contact. 



