UNSUSPECTED POISONING BY MEAT AND MILK OF TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 665 
in concentrating its attention on tubercular infection , has pract¬ 
ically entirely overlooked the no less real and in many cases no 
less dangerous tuberciilar poisoning. 
To elucidate this matter let us consider that much of this 
toxic matter produced by the growth of the bacillus is retained in 
Koch’s “tuberculin,” which has been absolutely sterilized. What 
then is the action of “ tuberculin ” on the animal system? Consti¬ 
tutional disorder, elevation of the body temperature and an im¬ 
pairment of most of the functions, notably those of assimilation 
and secretion. This is abundantly manifest in the wasting and 
fever of the victims of acute tuberculosis in which these poison¬ 
ous principles are being continually produced in large quantities. 
As the dose is reduced, a point is finally reached in which no 
fever nor appreciable systemic derangement is produced, and 
thus in many slight and indolent cases of tuberculosis the animal 
appears well, and thus also the usual test dose of “tuberculin” 
has no recognizable disturbing effect on the healthy animal sys¬ 
tem. With a dose less than this it may even be questioned 
whether it may not be actually beneficial in conferring on the 
healthy system a small measure of tolerance and power of re¬ 
sistance to bacillus and its poisons. This, however, is of little 
account seeing that no real immunity from tuberculosis is ever 
acquired. In many systems, both human and brute, this dis¬ 
ease continues its slow progress for many years, and the slight 
tolerance that results, while it may suppress the disease so 
that it assumes an indolent and chronic form, does not fully 
arrest it. 
Very different is a dose of even a minimum amount of “tu- 
berlin” on a subject which is already attacked with tuberculosis 
In such a case the products of existing tubercle are often so 
small in amount and the system has acquired such a tolerance 
of them that there is no manifest disturbance of health and the 
animal may even be in excellent condition. But add to this 
minimum amount of poison already in the system a small, quan¬ 
tity of “tuberculin,” and in ten or fifteen hours the temperature 
of the patient’s body will rise two or more degrees above the 
