The Bacillus tuberculosis. 



139 



die at all ; this especially occurs when the tubercular products remain 

 local, e. as an encapsulated cheesy mass. Local circumscribed tu- 

 berculosis of some of the less important parts of the body in man is 

 also known to be harmless. 



Again, as detailed before, the results of the experiments depend 

 greatly upon the species of animals used, their age and state of 'health, 

 and the part of body operated upon. 



The supreme question before the medical world is now, whether 

 the disease under consideration is really infectious. The natural history 

 of tuberculosis, just narrated, is surely against the existence of a 

 special poison such as now offered again by Koch. It is clearly proved 

 that no infective agent is required to produce tuberculosis. It is pos- 

 sible that Koch's Bacillus tuberculosis in itself is capable of inducing 

 the disease. There are at present no positive proofs either for or 

 against it. 



The evidence of those who have had a large experience with 

 consumptive patients is in perfect opposition to the infective theory 

 of phthisis. This, I think, is of more importance than experiments on 

 the lower animals. The alleged fact that occasionally the healthy wife 

 of a consumptive husband acquires phthisis (or the reverse), after 

 prolonged cohabitation, can reasonably be explained by the presumption 

 of an acquired scrofulosis from physical effects, misery of life, loss of 

 sleep, etc. 



Dr. Vincent Edwards, of the Brompton Hospital for Consumptives, 

 testifies that during his seventeen years' experience and observations 

 upon many thousand patients he has never observed a case of in- 

 fection directly or indirectly. None of his nurses ever contracted the 

 disease. 



The belief that milk or meat from tuberculous animals produces 

 consumption when used as food is also not warranted by scientific 

 observation, nor is it based upon facts. 



The natural history of tubercular disease and the laws of patho- 

 logical physiology are against the presumption of a parasitic origin 

 of phthisis. 



We can certainly not have parasites more pernicious than the 

 living cells of our own body prove to be in the case of tuberculosis. 



