256 
ALBERT BABB. 
are motionless, the spermatoza, which are very mobile, would 
leave the former deposited in the vagina, while they would 
move on into the uterus or even up the Fallopian tubes to 
meet and to fructify the ovum. As there is no direct com¬ 
munication between the blood of the dam and her foetus in 
utero, the latter would usually escape circulatory contamina¬ 
tion. Hence, it is fair to conclude that very young tubercu¬ 
lous subjects become infected from causes acting subsequently 
to parturition, principally from the milk. But it can readily 
be perceived how the dam can be inoculated by coition with 
a diseased male or during delivery by the manipulation of a 
phthisical accoucheur. This is no utopian scheme of fine, 
attenuated reasoning, for injections of virus per vaginum 
in rabbits and bitches prove uniformly positive, though ca¬ 
nines are by no means highly susceptible to the action of the 
contagium. 
Tuberculosis is no respecter of persons. While it will 
doubtless undermine the weak in constitution more quickly, 
and develop more rapidly in a soil previously prepared by a 
prior pathological condition, yet neither the Herculean ath¬ 
lete in the circus nor the majestic shorthorn in the show-yard 
is exempt from its all-conquering visitations. 
In conclusion, let it be remembered that the reception of the 
bacilli, or their spores, into the animal economy is absolutely 
essential to the development of tuberculosis, and that with¬ 
out them no amount of abuse or bad hygiene can cause it. 
If these bacteria possessed motion of their own kind, and 
were of such quick growth as to avoid being eliminated be¬ 
fore becoming established in the system, then the trouble 
would soon become nearly universal to the man and his lower 
but priceless companions, unless some modern champion of 
iEsculapian honors should arise more mighty than a Jenner, 
a Pasteur, a Billings or a Koch, able to battle with the pro¬ 
digious foe, and, like the infant Hercules, to strangle the huge 
serpents which seem sent to bring about our destruction. 
