UNSUSPECTED POISONING BY MEAT AND MILK OF TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 667 
milk. Yet no pathologist can for a moment doubt this general 
diffusion of these toxic products in the tuberculous subject. 
Accepting then as undeniable, the presence of the toxins in 
the blood, flesh and milk, it follows that those who eat this flesh 
and milk are taking in continually small doses of “tuberculin” 
and that in case they are already the victims of tuberculosis, in 
however slight a degree, or however indolent a form, this con¬ 
tinuous accession of the poison will rouse the morbid process 
into greater activity and secure a dangerous extension. 
If we now consider the prevalence of tuberculosis in the 
human population, and realize that every eighth death is that of 
a tuberculous person, we see what a fearful risk is being run by 
the utilization of the meat and milk of animals so affected, even 
if it could be shown that such meat and milk were themselves 
free from the living bacillus. Such reckless consumption of the 
products of tuberculous animals can only be looked upon as a 
direct means of sealing the fate of that large proportion of the 
community which is already slightly affected with tuberculosis. 
The claim that the canning of tuberculous carcasses and the 
boiling or Pasteurizing of milk does away with every element of 
danger can no longer be entertained. Sterilization is not a 
restoration to a non-toxic condition. It does away with the 
possibility of infection, it is true, but it does not render the 
product innocuous. 
As a matter of tact, Koch’s “tuberculin” has been sterilized 
by heat, but this has not by any means rendered it safe and 
harmless. On the contrary, it invariably intensifies any existing 
tuberculous process and developes fever and general constitu¬ 
tional disorder. When “tuberculin” is, therefore, present in 
meat and milk it can only cause these to operate in the same 
way on subjects that have been already infected. 
In my experience with tuberculous cows cases have come 
to my knowledge in which invalids drinking the milk of such 
animals have suffered very obviously, and have improved after 
such milk was withheld. So, too, in the case of calves sucking 
phthisical cows: they have done badly and proved unthrifty 
