ETIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. 
253 
their native land to the cold highlands in France where they 
weie all swept away by this plague. He further remarks: 
So numerous were the cases of tuberculosis occurring 
among these cattle that local observers believed the disease 
to be contagious.” Such arguments as these refute them¬ 
selves, for years ago tuberculosis was proved to be highly 
contagious, being readily transmissible, not only among the 
various quadrupeds, but also from man to them and vice versa , 
and one can but express his amazement that Dr. Fleming, 
IF.R.C.V.S., the great high priest of English veterinary medi¬ 
cine, should utter such nonsense. This serves to show that 
: Dr. F. S. Billings was not far wrong, when in 1892 he stated 
that our veterinary books were “ 150 years behind the times.” 
This is the ultimate principle: for the disease to be com¬ 
municated, the germs or their spores must be transmitted. 
It is not probable that the bacilli multiply outside of the 
animal body, as their pulutation requires a medium of from 
8 5 Q to 105° Fahrenheit; but they retain their vitality and 
virulence at very great extremes of temperature. All the 
liquid excreta cairy them and may convey the contagium to 
sound animals. They abound in the saliva. Phthisical 
sputum will impart the disease by inoculation even after it 
has been dried several weeks, and in this state is equally as 
virulent as moist. Contamination by inhaling dust mingled 
with this dried expectoration is the most common form of ac¬ 
quiring the germ in man and frequently imparts it to the 
domesticated animals. This is one cause of the frequency of 
t the disease in the lungs and air passages, for the bacilli possess 
no motion of their own, but in a perfectly passive manner are 
carried about in the medium in which they exist till they 
reach a suitable nidus and proper pabulum for their multipli¬ 
cation. At first their lesions are always topical. Injections 
show that primarily they develop locally ; if the inoculation 
be made in the anterior chamber of the eye, a tubercular iritis 
results; if in the abdominal cavity, a tubercular peritonitis; 
if in the coverings of the brain or spinal cord, a meningitis; 
if in a joint, an arthritis; and if in the lung substance, a pul¬ 
monary phthisis, etc. The expired air of contaminated sub- 
