INSPECTION OF MEAT AND MILK. 
79 
quite up to the standard, so far as appearances are concerned, 
at any rate. Yet is not the flesh as apt to contain the virus 
in the one case as in the other? Iam well aware that the 
flesh may not contain the virus to any appreciable extent in 
either case, and that, moreover, if it does, the process of cook¬ 
ing and the healthy condition of the digestive apparatus in 
the consumer may render it inert; yet it has not been proven 
that infection may not take place by consumption of such 
meat, and many of our best authorities are of the opinion that 
it can and does. The exact behavior of the tubercle bacilli 
under the conditions ordinarily present in the process of 
cooking has not yet been determined. To raise, in this pro¬ 
cess, the meat to a temperature necessary to make sure that 
all the organisms are killed, would involve a hardship, to say 
the least, to those of us who like our beef rare and juicy. 1 
imagine that most of us, if we had our choice, would prefer to 
take our chances of infection that we might have our beef a 
little underdone. 
It is not my purpose here to discuss the etiology of tuber¬ 
culosis, but to assume beyond all doubt that it is due to a mi¬ 
cro-organism known as the tubercle bacillus, first described 
by Koch in 1882. His work was so complete that no one has 
as yet been able to add to it anything of importance. It was 
a discovery which has taken such a hold upon the minds of 
the medical profession, that he who disbelieves it to-day is 
one who will not change his opinion, or one who is unac¬ 
quainted with the present methods of investigating infectious 
diseases. I will not detain you with a description of the or¬ 
ganism, further than to say that it is a bacillus, or rod-shaped 
object, about one-third as long as the diameter of a red blood 
corpuscle, and about one-tenth as broad as it is long. It has 
the property of resisting the action of acids in specimens 
stained with aniline colors, which serves to distinguish it 
from other organisms. It grows slowly and only in certain 
media, preferably blood serum and glycerine agar. These 
organisms are found in all the tissues in which the lesions are 
present and in the fluid from the affected parts. The organ¬ 
ism is the same, no matter what species of animal it may 
affect. 
