940 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
tied. Koch refers to the rarity of intestinal tuberculosis in chil¬ 
dren as a strong- argument in favor of his theory. He claims 
in this connection that if man were susceptible to bovine tuber¬ 
culosis through the ingestion of meat and milk the intestines 
should be primarily the seat of the tubercular lesions. Al¬ 
though this committee may seem ridiculous in the eyes of its 
hearers to repudiate the theories of such eminent men, we are 
forced to believe that tuberculosis may be disseminated 
through the body through the intestinal tract without causing 
tubercular lesions in the intestines themselves. If the aliment¬ 
ary canal were eminently susceptible to tuberculosis, how would 
a man suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis escape intestinal 
tuberculosis when it is known that he is swallowing millions of 
tubercular bacilli continually? The time is especially opportune 
for this society to discuss this salient point. 
“ Tetanus Outbreak in St. Louis .—A new danger in the use 
of diphtheria antitoxin was exemplified by the death of a number 
of children after they had been injected with medicinal doses of 
this biological product. It might be well here to refresh our 
minds with the fact that diphtheria antitoxin is manufactured 
by charging the blood of horses with large quantities of diph¬ 
theria toxin and diphtheria bacilli. The blood serum of' such 
animals after being duly filtered and tested as to strength, con¬ 
stitutes diphtheria antitoxin. In the St Louis case the serum 
was drawn from a horse’s jugular on August 24th. The horse 
died from tetanus the first week in October, six weeks after, 
showing that the toxin of tetanus may be a long time accumu¬ 
lating before it is manifested clinically. This committee does 
not believe that this unfortunate circumstance, awful as it is, 
will materially affect the use of diphtheria antitoxin, but that it 
will add to the responsibility of the persons engaged in its man- 
nfactnre. 
“Increased Popularity of Tuberculin Tests on Human Pa¬ 
tients .—The value of tuberculin tests in the diagnosis of tuber¬ 
culosis in its bacillary stage in the human patient is becoming 
more and more recognized by the practitioners in human medi¬ 
cine. For a number of years it fell into disuse because of the 
supposed danger attending its use. Recently such eminent au¬ 
thorities as Evans, Castleberry and others of note, placed much 
stress upon its great value in ferreting out the most remote 
cases, thereby making it possible to begin rational therapeutics 
before the disease had developed into an incurable affliction. 
The same authors, however, referred to reactions in nontuber* 
