SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 517 
received them does not constitute a medium favorable for 
their multiplication, they may remain where introduced in full 
powers of activity, but cause no general disorder. Thus, 
variola when inoculated in the bovine species gives rise to 
a scarcely perceptible local condition, to which the animal 
affected seems indifferent, whilst the element of contagion 
stored up here preserves all its activity, and manifests it with 
intense energy when it is removed to an organism favorable 
for its development. Similar conditions occur when dogs 
are inoculated with glanders; the virulent element can 
only produce a local lesion without any general manifesta¬ 
tion due to multiplication, nevertheless, it remains in an 
active living state and in full power of its activity ; for if it 
be carried to a favorable medium, such as the organism of 
the ass affords, it there, like a germ in a cultivating fluid, 
multiplies indefinitely, and its increase is denoted by the 
symptoms of the generalised disease which expresses it. Since 
contagion, then, is a manifestation of the life of an element, we 
may conceive, in returning specially to our examination of 
tuberculosis, that the conditions for the transmission of that 
disease would be the more favorable, as the active element 
when introduced into the organism submitted to the proof of 
inoculation is. u more actively living/’ 
M. Colin , in the experiment which he related to the 
Academy, realised this condition very completely. Happen¬ 
ing to obtain a beautiful specimen of tuberculous lesions of 
the bowels and of the mesenteric glands in the rabbit, he 
wished to see what tubercle taken almost from the living animal 
would produce in animals of the same species. The inocu¬ 
lation was made in almost infinitesimal quantity with 
the point of a lancet by three subepidermic punctures 
in the region of the flank of two rabbits of the same age and 
of the same litter; whilst a third, also of the same litter, 
served as a means for comparison by its regular development. 
M. Colin, in his memoire } points out also the phenomena 
which resulted in the two animals used for experiment. Suffice 
it to say the inoculated matter acted virulently, its active 
element multiplied in excessive proportion, and gave rise to 
general lesions of extreme intensity. In one subject, killed 
at the commencement of the eighth week, in order to examine 
the general lesions in their earliest stage, the following were 
noted :—“ Development of tumours at the points of inocu¬ 
lation, ulceration of these tumours, swelling and tubercular 
deposition in those glands of the lymphatic system, which 
are nearest to the seat of inoculation; finally, tuberculosis 
of the viscera, liver, spleen, kidneys, and especially com- 
