604 
G. A. JOHNSON. 
It is evident from the above' that the germ first enters one 
of the circulatory systems before finding a field suitable for its 
development. 
If this be equally true in the human, as some post reports 
seem to indicate, it is very evident that the theory in question 
is erroneous. 
In connection with this phase of the subject, I will cite the 
history of a case as given to me recently by a prominent physician 
who was called to treat what he had reason to believe was a 
case of chronic, or more properly speaking, simple tonsilitis in 
a woman. Ordinary treatment for this affection was prescribed, 
and the throat lesions rapidly subsided without rupture on the 
free surface; but the patient developed constitutional distur¬ 
bances which proved to be tubercular meningitis that ran a re¬ 
markably rapid course, death taking place on the forty-first day 
from date of calling the physician to attend the throat trouble. 
This woman was of a tuberculous family, a brother having 
recently died of that disease. 
Judging from the conditions I have seen in cattle, as above 
described, I am inclined to believe that this throat trouble was 
tubercular, and that instead of the tubercular products escaping 
by an opening on a free surface, as in previous attacks, it was 
absorbed, with the results as above stated. 
Again, will the advocates of this theory please explain how 
it is that we have primary infection in the form of tubercular 
ostitis, arthritis and meningitis ? If the germs do not enter the 
circulatory system, how do they reach these deep seated tissues? 
And if the germs do enter the circulatory system in these in¬ 
stances, are they not just as likely to enter it in other instances? 
And if they do enter the blood channel at all, are they not as 
liable to be carried to the lungs as from them ? 
One more thought relative to the spread of this disease by 
inhalation. It has been demonstrated beyond question, by a 
number of the leading bacteriologists of the day, that sunlight 
and atmospheric exposures will destroy most of the pathogenic 
micro-organisms. This seems to be especially true of the tuber- 
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