The Bacillus tuberculosis. 133 



from the upper lip of one of them, the connective tissue was found 

 normal on microscopic examination. One year later, this cat having 

 been kept in confinement and poorly nourished, again a part of the 

 lip was examined, and I found the connective tissue similar to that of 

 a scrofulous animal, the lymph -spaces being filled with many cells. 

 No injury had previously been inflicted on the lip. The cat had been 

 inoculated with diphtheritic and erysipelatous matter several times, 

 both in the thigh and the back, which ultimately led to a cheesy 

 mass at the seat of inoculation. Finally the cat was accidentally 

 killed, and miliary tubercles were demonstrated in lungs, liver, kid- 

 neys, spleen, and lymphatic glands. Three other experiments, in which 

 the animals were not kept so long a time, failed. One of a number 

 of well-fed dogs which I have kept for the past eighteen months 

 (tumor experiments) was accidentally killed, and microscopic exami- 

 nation showed the impairment of the connective tissue of the described 

 scrofulous character to a moderate degree. 



On the other hand, it is noteworthy that some rabbits and guinea- 

 pigs fail to become tubercular after repeated and thorough inocu- 

 lations, even with true tubercular matter. This has been proved by 

 Robinson (Joe. cit.) He concludes from this that there are non- scro- 

 fulous rabbits as well as non-scrofulous human beings. It would have 

 been interesting to have examined the connective tissue of all such 

 rabbits, but this was omitted at the time. Wild rabbits, however, I 

 found to have a connective tissue like non-scrofulous animals, — i. e., 

 with but few cells, and the lymph-spaces free. We had a number of 

 these animals, but in confinement they soon die, if experimented on, 

 of septicaemia, or acute enteritis. 



It is highly probable from the above experiments on animals that 

 the normal man may acquire a scrofulous anatomy if ill nourished 

 from a long-continued disorder of the digestive tract, from deficiency 

 of food or exercise, from loss of sleep, nervous prostration, etc. A cold 

 or bronchitis, which in former days passed off rapidly, now in his 

 debilitated system hangs on and leads to phthisis. Again, under this 

 hypothesis, it is not impossible that scrofulous persons may become 

 non-scrofulous through proper movements of muscles and lungs; the 

 obstruction in the lymph -spaces being relieved by a widening of the 



