koch’s tuberculosis conclusions. 
479 
point of contact of the germ with receptive tissue should be set 
up before an invasion of other parts took place, but we cannot 
regard it as proved that such is always the case. Who can say 
that in every instance of tuberculous disease of the meninges, of 
a joint or of any other structure not directly exposed to contact 
with germs a local tuberculous process is first set up at the 
point of their original lodgment. Reasoning from analogy, we 
may refer to M. Jullien's article, entitled “Two Clear Cases of 
Syphilis without a Chancre,” published in the Medical Press 
for July 3d and abstracted in this issue of the Joiirnal under 
the head of “ Miscellany.” 
Finally, let us consider the action of tuberculin. Are we to 
take it for granted that all the tuberculin that is capable of giv¬ 
ing rise to the diagnostic reaction in cattle is of bovine origin ? 
Apparently, tliat'would have to be the case if human tuber¬ 
culous infection were not transmissible to cattle. If it is the 
case, Koch’s deductions will receive support in a substantial 
form, though it must still be borne in mind that, as a rule, in¬ 
fectious diseases which affect both man and the lower animals 
are not so readily transmitted from the one to the other as they 
are from one individual to another of the same species. All 
things considered, we must still urge upon sanitary officials the 
folly of discontinuing the precautions now resorted to until the 
needlessness of them is much more clearly shown than it has 
been thus far. As subjects of thought and further investigation, 
Professor Koch’s propositions are quite in order, but that, it 
seems to us, is all that can be said of them at present. Even if 
they ultimately turn out to be well founded, the interests of 
stock-breeders and dairy-farmers will still require the extermina¬ 
tion of tuberculous cattle. 
FROM THE “ BREEDER’S GAZETTE.” 
The katabasis has come. For years the noble army of tuber- 
culine squirt-gun manipulators has been marching up the hill, 
beating tom-toms and brandishing the pole-axe, crying, “ Kill, 
Kill.” This fierce and bloodthirsty campaign against our herds 
has been waged on the disputed assumption that tuberculosis in 
cattle is a menace to the public health. Broadly and yet accur¬ 
ately speaking it has been based on the discoveries and the dec¬ 
larations of Dr. Robert Koch, the eminent German bacteriolo¬ 
gist, who at first believed he had found in tuberculin a cure for 
consumption. Servile worshippers of asserted authority, the 
half-baked scientists and zealots of the squirt-gun brigade have 
