248 
ALBERT BABB. 
In conclusion, I wish to make one remark: pneumonia is 
,a disease peculiarly adapted to mislead in regard to the 
therapeutical data. Endowed with a critical defervescence, 
which is apt to appear anywhere from the fifth to the twelfth 
day of the disease, it is obvious that early defervescence will 
score to the credit of any drug that is used for any length of 
time. My greatest faith is in the cold water sponging, watch¬ 
ing the heart, and keeping up the appetite. 
Mention has been made of alcohol, and it is extensively 
used by some, but one should try to keep a clear idea as to 
its indications. I would say that the majority of pneumonia 
cases do not require alcohol; and, therefore, I can see no 
reason for giving it. I am thoroughly averse to its use in 
the early stages of pneumonia. Expectorants are of no use, 
as a rule, except to disturb digestion. 
Then we may say that in all microbic diseases we have an 
illustration of that potent factor in the life of the organism, 
the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest, and 
the energy expended in the battle is measured by the clinical 
thermometer in degrees of heat. 
ETIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. 
j 
Albert Babb, A.B., M.D.C., Springfield, Ill. 
(A Paper read before the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association.) 
When Pandora opened the fatal chest which inundated 
the world with sorrow, misery and death, there was no greater 
pest escaped beneath its ominous lid, than this most wide¬ 
spread and mortal of all diseases—tuberculosis. Where the 
sun’s rays fall there is its habitation, and no domestic animal 
is wholly exempt from its ravages. The crowded, city and 
the public mart are its favorite places of abode, but there is 
no tribe of people, nor breed of animals accompanying it sol 
far removed from the centres of civilization and refinement 
that its death grip and cadaverous visage are not sorrowfully 
familiar. Every human or animal tissue is liable to be in¬ 
vaded by its products, and the footprints of its silent journey 
are demonstrated on every dissecting table. It has been 
