132 



H. P. Formad, 



hence I think we are justified in classing all the scrofulous human 

 beings as a peculiar species of mankind. The scrofulous condition, 

 being an anatomical anomaly, is thus not necessarily a pathological 

 condition, and is by no means a disease in itself. It has its perfect 

 analogue in the domestic rabbit and guinea-pig. The offspring of 

 these scrofulous animals have the anatomical peculiarity of the con- 

 nective tissue of their parents; they inherit it, and so do the off- 

 spring of scrofulous human beings. 



Two important points come now into consideration. 



1. There are, unfortunately, ways and means by which scrofu- 

 losis and, subsequently, tuberculosis can be induced artificially in 

 animals normally not possessed of this condition ; and the same is 

 probably true of men. 



2. True tuberculosis can be produced even in non- scrofulous 

 animals through simple injuries of serous membranes ; and this seems 

 to be also well established for men. 



As to the first point. It is a well-known fact that wild beasts 

 in confinement usually die of tubercular disease. I had ample op- 

 portunity to see this myself. In the winter of 1875 — 76 and the 

 following spring a large number of all kinds of dead animals from 

 the Zoological Garden were sent to the University of Pennsylvania. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. Henry Chapman, I examined carefully 

 many of them in conjunction with Drs. Andrew J. Parker and Francis 

 Dercum, and nearly all showed tuberculosis to be the cause of death. 



The first experiments to produce artificially and intentionally a 

 scrofulous condition in the cat and dog were made by my assistant, 

 Dr. 0. C. Robinson, in the Pathological Laboratory of the University 

 of Pennsylvania, in 1880 1 ). This he accomplished by keeping the 

 animals in close confinement and on rather poor diet for eight months 

 Injuries on the skin of the neck which previously had healed promptly 

 now repeated gave rise to a bad cheesy suppuration, and within three 

 more months the animals died. Autopsy revealed miliary tuberculosis 

 of nearly all organs. 



I have lately repeated this experiment on cats. Taking a piece 



a ) An Experimental Research ou Tuberculosis. See abstract, Philad. Med. Times, 

 Vol. XII. p. 130. 



