260 
M. NOCARD. 
present time have become possessed of a new element of diagnosis 
for doubtful cases of tuberculosis—to wit: that the coloration of 
the bacillus in the sputa of the patient is conclusive in determin¬ 
ing whether be is tuberculous. It is but two years since Koch 
published bis discovery, and the cases may be counted by thous¬ 
ands in which cases of tuberculosis have been verified by the 
presence of the bacillus in the sputa of the patient. It is a fact, 
moreover, that, in a certain number of cases where the general 
condition of the sick, the progress of the disease, and all the 
stethose optical signs have seemed to justify a diagnosis of tuber¬ 
culosis, the constant absence of the bacillus of Koch from the 
sputa has authorized and confirmed the reserve of the diagnosis, 
and the post mortem investigation has revealed the existence of 
pulmonary lesions, such as bronchial dilatation and pulmonary 
sclerosis, having nothing in common with tuberculosis. 
May not veterinary medicine also derive its share of benefit 
from the important discovery of Koch ? Animals of the bovine 
species, which are of such value in the point of view of human 
food, are, like its human victims, decimated by tuberculosis; but 
the identity of the two affections, the bovine and the human, has 
not yet been demonstratively established. Yet it may be possible 
that these two tuberculiform diseases are of different natures ; 
that they spring from distinct causes ; that the parasite around 
which the tubercle forms itself would not be of the same species 
in one as in the other. The researches of Colin, of Laulanie, of 
H. Martin, etc., have shown that foreign bodies very different, 
both inert and living, may give rise to the formation around them 
of tubercles, morphologically identical to the naked eye, and 
even to the microscope, in such a way that to-day every one ad¬ 
mits that what characterizes the tubercle is the specificity 
(Renaut). 
What connections exist between human and bovine tubercu¬ 
losis ? Does the bacillus of Koch exist also in the tuberculous 
ox? If so, can its presence be discovered in the purulent ex¬ 
pectoration of the sick ? Both of these questions admit of an 
affirmative answer. It is even so ; the bacillus of Koch exists in 
tlie lesion of the tuberculous bovine, and Koch himself has found 
