720 
ON TUBERCLES IN DIFFERENT ORGANS. 
M. Lugol next takes into consideration external tubercular 
ulcers; but we have comparatively little to do with that, though we 
have much to do with the suppuration of internal tubercles in 
the lungs, the development of which is attended by the most 
disastrous consequences, not only on account of the importance 
of the organ that is attacked, but the rapidity with which the 
disease proceeds. At the onset the suppuration of pulmonary 
tubercles is latent and obscure. We may perhaps guess at it by 
the application of the stethescope, with little or no satisfaction ; 
but this state of things is not of long duration in an organ, the 
functions of which occupy so prominent a part in the economy of 
the animal. When the suppuration is abundant, the entire 
system sympathises with the sufferings of the animal. Slow 
fever comes on without any considerable increase of the pulse. 
The features and the system generally become extremely 
emaciated without any apparent cause. How palpable is this in 
the cow ! It is a valuable diagnosis of pulmonary tubercles during 
the early or middle stages of the disease. 
Pulmonary tubercular suppuration occasions cough, difficulty of 
breathing, absorption of the lungs, and all the phenomena of colli- 
quative fever. 
In cases of pulmonary phthisis, we too frequently attribute all 
the appreciable functions and lesions to the disease of the lungs ; 
but in this disease there are almost always tubercles in the spleen, 
the mesentery, and various other lesions ; and the suppuration of 
these tubercles contributes to many of the symptoms that are wit- 
nessed. 
The development of pulmonary tubercles is subject to various 
remissions and recrudescencies. There has been a remission of 
many of the symptoms, but from many a cause ; and in both the 
biped and the quadruped there is not a more frequent one than on 
the return of the spring a fresh growth of tubercles seems to take 
place, and the patient is hurried off. 
M. Lugol mentions a circumstance with regard to the human 
being and the cow, which is indeed of unfrequent occurrence, but 
occasionally seen, — cancer in the breast of the female, and of the 
udder in the cow. The mother is perfectly well for two or three 
or four months, and then the little one exhibits some S)unptoms 
of scrofula. What is the consequence 1 On the other hand, the 
mother may have been subject to scrofula, and some cancerous af- 
fection appears on the child. Persons also, and animals that have 
been scrofulous in their infancy or their youth, are attacked with 
cancerous affections at a critical period of life. Local causes have 
evidently very little to do with the pathology of many of these cases. 
We make no apology for the introduction of this long analysis 
of M. Lugol’s valuable lectures, and shall probably return to the 
subject. These lectures appear in the Medical Gazette for August 
and October. 
