120 
A. W. CLEMENT. 
prevail and that this community will adopt the only policy 
which can commend itself to an enlightened people. 
Dr. Wm. T. Councilman, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, said 
that the anatomical study of the tuberculous lesions throws 
much light on the manner in which infection takes place. 
While there is no doubt that in the great majority of cases 
the sputum is the source of infection by the inhalation of the 
tubercle bacilli, set free by drying, the first source of the dis¬ 
ease being then found in the lungs, there are many cases in 
which the infection comes from the alimentary canal. Though 
in such cases infection by sputum cannot be excluded, for the 
bacilli from it may get on food or other objects which are 
placed in the mouth, we know that we have in tuberculous 
milk and probably in flesh a much readier source of infection. 
We are so accustomed to regard tuberculosis as a disease of 
the lungs that we lose sight of the great number of other 
than lung lesions which are produced by the bacilli. Almost 
all chronic enlargements of glands, the chronic joint diseases, 
etc., are tuberculous, and for most of these, infection takes 
place through the alimentary canal. 
All inspection of meat, dairy cattle, etc., should be made 
by an expert who has had a long experience in studying the 
comparative pathology of the disease. For, although the 
‘ disease is the same in man and animals, and the lesions pro¬ 
duced by it agree in their general features, the characteristics 
of the tissues and the manner of infection and spread of the 
disease in the different animals, produce such apparent differ¬ 
ences in the lesions that they might readily be mistaken by 
one not an expert in such matters. Such an inspection of 
meat as Dr. Clement has pointed out would not be possible 
except with the abattoir system. While there is every rea¬ 
son, both sanitary and economic, that we should have such an 
inspection of meat and milk, there is no ground on which it 
can be opposed. 
We are so accustomed to tuberculosis, it is so much with 
us that we have come to accept it as a matter of fate and do 
not lift our hands in an attempt to mitigate its ravages. 
While it would, no doubt, be impossible to exclude all the 
sources of infection, still, many of them can be. 
