president’s address. 
13 
into the stomach of animals, the gastric juice of that organ has 
invariably destroyed them. It is highly probable that they are 
conveyed into the lungs ■with the inspired air, and find their way 
from thence into the blood, where, however, they remain but 
a short time. Koch, and other competent observers, declare that 
the intestinal canal is the only part of the body in which they can 
ho found, and that they have sought for them in vain elsewhere. 
If this is actually the case, the task of destroying these germs 
within the body will be much simplified, as it is obvious that the 
intestinal canal is more amenable to the direct action of germicides 
than any other part of the organism. In fact, there is good 
reason to hope an effectual antidote will be discovered, sooner or 
later, for this fell disease. 
The Bacillus tuberculosis , the bacillus of Tubercle or Phthisis, 
claims, beyond all doubt, more British victims than any other 
pathogenic micro-organism yet discovered. Bacteriology is some- 
times regarded as a kind of modern scientific fad that will have its 
brief strut upon the stage, and then be gathered to its fathers in 
the waste-paper basket. But I venture to say he would be a bold 
man who averred, in the face of the scientific researches of the last 
decade or so, that a vast army of our countrymen are not done to 
death every year by this tiny micro-organism, and that every one of 
these numerous victims might have indefinitely prolonged his or 
her life, if only society took more cognizance of the fact, that 
tubercle, in all its various forms, is an infectious disease. Hie 
bacillus of tubercle can be cultivated only on stiffened blood-serum 
or in infusion of meat; and is remarkable for its slowness of 
growth or multiplication. It is present in a very large proportion 
of cases in the expectoration of phthisical patients ; and as 
desiccation during a period of one hundred and eighty-six days 
does not impair its vitality, these dried-up sputa are, no doubt, 
one of the most fruitful sources of the propagation of phthisis and 
its congeners. The milk of tuberculous cows often contains these 
bacilli, and in all probability a great many children imbibe the 
disease in this way. Boiling the milk is an unfailing prophylactic, 
or preventive, in such cases. The flesh of tuberculous animals 
