CHAPTER XIV 



BACILLUS TUBERCULOSIS AND BACILLUS LEPR« ^ 



Bacillus Tuberculosis. — The first decisive experimental 

 proof that tuberculosis is a communicable disease has been 

 given by Klencke and Villemin, the latter showing that by 

 inoculation of tubercular matter, such as sputum derived 

 from a tuberculous patient, into guinea-pigs a chronic 

 disease is produced, which had the distinct characters of 

 disseminated tuberculosis in the lymph glands, the lungs, 

 the serous membranes, the liver, and spleen. The deposits 

 are at first minute and gray, not larger than a pin's head ; 

 they gradually enlarge and caseate in the centre, which 

 caseation spreads over the whole tubercle. Chauvau, 

 Wilson Fox, Bijrdon-Sanderson, Klebs, Cohnheim, and 

 many others have repeated and confirmed these experi- 

 ments. Inoculations with bovine tubercular matter were 

 also made on guinea-pigs and rabbits, and true dis- 

 seminated tuberculosis was produced. Feeding of calves, 

 pigs, guinea-pigs, and rabbits with tubercular matter, both 



^ The greater part of the following account is taken from Klein's 

 article in Stevenson and Murphy's Treatise on Hygiene, vol. ii., p. 210 

 et iassim. 



