TEXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 243 



cases infection had attacked the lungs through the diaphragm. 

 But the respiratory organs were never the chief seat of pathologi- 

 cal change (as happens with the spontaneous tuherculosis of those 

 pigs), and in the anatomical picture supplied a definite conclusion 

 concerning this kind of transmission. 



But when the inoculated dust came from places where there 

 had been no consumptives, the animals did not fall a prey to tuber- 

 culosis. 



Having succeeded in discovering the recesses usually concealing 

 the infectious matter. Cornet further showed the manner in which 

 the tubercle bacilli generally get into our apartments. It may be 

 thought that the direct discharge of the expectoration upon the 

 floors plays the principal role. But this bad habit is, after all, not 

 so general, and the aversion of even common people to soiling their 

 own home is so pronounced that we cannot attribute the regular 

 occurrence of bacilli in places serving as abodes for consumptives 

 to this cause. Cornet ascertained that the truly dangerous pro- 

 cedure is the reception and preservation of the sputum in pocket- 

 handkerchiefs. It finds there the best opportunity of quickly dry- 

 ing and being turned 'into dust after a repeated use of the cloth. 

 Especially the bedclothes on which the pocket-handkerchief lies 

 during the night ready to be taken up during paroxysms of cough- 

 ing proved, in Cornet's investigations, to be a fruitful place of de- 

 posit for the bacilli, and a series of particularly interesting instances 

 showed the real significance of this fact. The rooms in our hos- 

 pitals in which the consumptives are so often accommodated along 

 with other patients, and, strange to saj^, especially with persons 

 whose lungs are otherwise affected, proved to be infected. A hotel 

 room in which a phthisical actress had lived but a few weeks con-; 

 tained large quantities of bacilli, and so on. 



The sensation caused by these discoveries has been quite extra- 

 ordinary and justifiable. The view is gaining ground that tuber- 

 culosis is an infectious disease, that man belongs to a readily-sus- 

 ceptible species, that the bacilli are the sole cause, and that the 

 dried expectoration especially causes a spread of the affection. 

 Every phthisical person indicates, therefore, an immediate danger 

 for those around him, and we should bear in mind that in inter- 

 course with tuberculous presons we stand nearer to fate than 

 otherwise. The very places where a continual aggregation of peo- 

 ple takes place and where a patient may distribute the requisite 

 infectious material for months, thus exposing healthy persons, are 

 the favorite seats for tuberculosis ; hence barracks, lunatic asylums, 

 jails, etc., are its most favorite seats. 



