Infectious Secretions and Products. ^,'^^'j^ 



fact only in the diseased portions of these organs. They are 

 further found in the contents of body cavities and canals the 

 walls of which contain tuberculous ulcers or which may I'eceivo 

 pathologic products from other organs (e. g., lung secretions in 

 the intestinal canal). In so far as these canals connect with 

 the outer air, the secretions and excreta discharged through' 

 their openings may contain more or less tubercle bacilli which 

 are thus disseminated (open tuberculosis, in contrast to enclosed 

 tuberculosis in which the baeillary foci do not communicate with 

 the outer air). 



Even in slightly advanced cases of tuberculosis of the lungs 

 the bronchial secretions as well as the nasal secretions may con- 

 tain bacilli in varying numbers either at intervals or constantly. 

 The organisms may also be present in the saliva as a result of 

 an admixture of bronchial secretions with the secretions of 

 the buccal cavity. 



Since animals usually swallow the secretions from the lungs 

 which are coughed up from time to time, these become incor- 

 porated with the contents of the intestinal canal and are found 

 unchanged in the feces. In addition to this source tubercle 

 bacilli which are discharged from intestinal ulcers may be the 

 cause of infection of the feces, consequently the excretions from 

 animals with advanced tuberculosis are one of the most im- 

 portant factors in the dissemination of the disease. 



The fact that tubercle bacilli may pass through the intestinal canal 

 without having their virulence impaired in the least, has been experi- 

 mentally demonstrated by Cadeae & Bourney. These investigators 

 inoculated rabbits with the feces of a cow that had been infected by 

 feeding tuberculous organs, and in this way produced tuberculosis in 

 nearly every case. Even before this Zagari demonstrated that the feces 

 of dogs that were fed with human tuberculous sputum contained viru- 

 lent bacilli. The experiments by Perranini demonstrating that gastric 

 juice containing 2% of free hydrochloric acid does not reduce the viru- 

 lence of tubercle bacilli in the least, in the course of 1 to 2 hours, are in 

 accordance with this fact. 



Schroeder & Cotton emphasize the danger that exists in the feces of 

 apparently ,perfectly healthy cattle but which are in fact tuberculous. 

 They found that in a number of cases the feces of such animals contained 

 tubercle bacilli constantly for periods of months and years. The enor- 

 mous number of bacteria present in feces is indicated by the fact that 

 0.001 g. of such material will produce a fatal tuberculosis in guinea pigs, 

 the average quantity ^f feces voided by a cow daily being 30 lbs. It 

 is evident, of course, that this infected mass of manure may easily con- 

 taminate the milk during milking. 



In tuberculosis of the kidneys, especially of the pelvis and 

 in disease of other portions of the urinary apparatus, the urine 

 contains tubercle bacilli (Kallina) ; similarly tuberculosis of 

 the uterus, epididymis or prostate gland may cause the presence 

 of bacilli in the urine. In tuberculosis of the uterus, the vaginal 

 secretion, and in tuberculosis of the epididymis the spermatic 

 fluid may contain tubercle bacilli. 



