826 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
blood circulation — or it may be that the spores are present in the milk, 
though not the bacilli, and this would account for the infectiousness 
of milk in cases where no bacilli could be found. 
Numerous experiments by a considerable number of observers 
have established on a firm basis a very generally held belief that the 
flesh of animals suffering from tubercular disease does convey infection 
to healthy animals, including man. Meat from tubercular animals, 
thoroughly cooked or roasted, has always given negative results when 
used experimentally ; partially cooked or underdone meat when used 
has frequently been followed by tuberculosis. If the milk has been 
boiled for five minutes it loses its infectiousness altogether. Bollinger 
lias also shown that the milk from the healthy udders of tubercular 
cows loses its infectiousness after dilution — 1 to 40 or 1 to 100. He 
advises the mixing of milk from different animals, and cautions 
against the consumption of milk taken from any particular cow. 
Yon Ziemssen says : “ Of course the risk from this source is very 
much lessened on account of the custom of mixing up the milk,” &c. 
Klein says : “ It is contrary to what one would a priori have 
expected— viz., one would have thought it better not to mix, in order 
to avoid possible contamination of normal milk.” 
To boil meat, plunge for a few minutes into boiling water to 
coagulate the surface and prevent escape of the juices. Afterwards 
keep in water at 100 degrees to 170 degrees. To kill T. bacilli , the 
temperature must be kept at 158 degrees Fahr. (70 degrees C.) for at 
least one hour. 
Fowls by eating tubercular sputum have been known to become 
tubercular ; and a healthy, robust woman by eating the half-cooked 
flesh of sixteen of these fowls in the course of four months became 
consumptive. I know of a case in which a consumptive lady went to 
stay on a station, and used to spit on to the ground near the veranda. 
The ducks about were seen at times to devour this sputum— the ducks, 
previously healthy, soon all died of tuberculosis. 
Numerous cases have been reported in medical journals in which 
tuberculosis, localised or general, has followed inoculation or intro- 
duction subcutaneously of tubercular matter bj means of a cut, scratch, 
or sore. 
~Wc have, therefore, four means by which the disease may be 
introduced into the body, viz. : — (1) Inhalation into the air-passages 
and lungs; (2) swallowing into the alimentary canal; (3) direct 
introduction by inoculation ; (4) heredity. By considering these 
with our other knowledge we may arrive at a conclusion as to what 
are the best methods to adopt to prevent the spread of the disease. 
Wc have in this disease a striking example of the old proverb that 
<{ prevention is better than cure,” for I regret to say that there is at 
present no known cure except in the few cases of localised disease, 
occurring chiefly in man, which can be dealt with surgically by excision, 
and so removing the focus. Medical treatment can be of very great 
assistance in many cases by arresting the disease, and so jiractically 
curing as far as the individual is concerned, . Exactly speaking, how- 
ever, these cases are not cures; the focus is still present, and the 
disease may, under favouring conditions, break out afresh at any time. 
