TUBERCULO-INFECTION OF MAN. 
547 
tuberculosis is a negligible quantity in the measures that must be 
taken for the preservation of human health, is without basis in 
fact, and that there is no more active agent than the tuberculous 
cow for the increase of tuberculosis among animals, and its 
persistence among men ” 
On the other hand, a priori, the comparative rarity of primary 
intestinal tuberculosis, on which point there is, however, a dis¬ 
crepancy of statistics, apparently does not favor the idea of 
tubercular infection by ingestion of food. 
But even though as stated by Koch, pulmonary consumption 
constitutes eleven-twelfths, and all other forms of tuberculosis 
but one-twelfth of all cases of tuberculosis, there is nothing so 
conclusive about such statistics as may at first sight seem to be the 
case. The question as to the primary site of infection, the port 
of entry, still remains open, debatable ground! 
It has been proven, as already mentioned, that tubercular-aero- 
infection probably may well take place, in fact, undoubtedly does 
take place through the tonsils. I have spoken of my own ex¬ 
perience while conducting the laboratory work for J. B. Murphy’s 
surgical clinic in Chicago some years ago. Again, Latham, a 
competent observer, considers that not less than 25 to 35 per cent, 
of the cases of tuberculosis which occur in early childhood are 
due to intestinal, and therefore presumably, to food infection. 
Now that the origin of tubercular infection of the lungs may well 
take place in the tonsils is admitted by all. They are known atria 
of infection for various constitutional diseases. The transmission 
of the tubercule germ from the tonsil through the chain of lym¬ 
phatics in the neck down into the lung has been abundantly dem¬ 
onstrated. Why then should not transmission of the tubercle 
germ through the body lymphatics be equally possible, and being 
possible, as I shall show you, equally plausible as a probable 
source of infection with tonsillar infection, nay more. Remem¬ 
bering the constant and regular consumption of such articles of 
diet, usually unsuspected of contamination and therefore com¬ 
monly long derived from a given same source, infected yet un¬ 
suspected though this source may be, why should not food-infec- 
