Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-06

! of research, and the lectures in our medical | and veterinary schools have been particu- I larly active and successful in their experi- l ments. Tuberculosis organisms have been ! extracted from the domestic animals and l compared with analogous structures found ! in the human body. Professor Valley a7d M'Fadyen say their own experiments estab- | 1ish an absolute identity of the lessons in both-that the structure of the tubercle found in the lung is the same that found l in the lungs of man. Clyne, who has con- | tributed largely to the literature of the sub | jsct, urges that certain difference in the ' size of the tubercular bacillus is evidence of non-identity. As an item of evidence in the same direction, Clyne points to the fact that the majority of the bacilli are in their cells 1 in bovine tuberculosis, and between the cells in human; whereas Koch, and in this country Sutton, and many others have found baeilli both in the cells and in the spaces. Dr. Sims Weodhead, one of our ablest path ologists, distributed some specimens among his friends to see if they could discover any difference between bacili taken from man and those from animals, and, with reference to Clynes objection, found it impossible to distinguish between the two as regards size, even when high magnifying powers were used. On Clyne's other objection, Wood head agrees with Koch. The same remarks apply generally, at least, to tuberculosis in horses Fowls have not afforded the same
 unmistakable testimony in the matter of
 tuberculosis although it is we'll known that
 the farmyard has disseminated another
 equally terrible disease-diphtheria. Yoa
 can inoculate fowls with tubercles from the
 human subject; in the same way you can
 iaoculate from guinea-pig to COW; but it
 is curious to note that when you inoeu-
 late from the COW to fowls the experiments
 break down.
 These results of scientifc inquiry are, of
 course, somewhat bald and insignificant
 looking, and to the lay mind may not import
 the existence of any exceptional dangers of
 the spread of consumption. The opinion of
 nearly the entire profession of medicine,
 however, seems to be that such dangers un-
 occasionally exist, and two instances culled
 at random from testimony applicable to
 Edinburgh alone may suffice to illustrate the
 risks to which the susceptible are exposed
 from this phthisical alternative-germ. Pro-
 lessor M'Fadyen since the congress at Copen
 hagen, has challenged the microscopical ex-
 animation of cows udders collected by him,
 and there was no dissentient from the view
 that they were infested with these organisms
 Two years ago specimen of tuberculosis of
 the udder was got from COW which was in
 prime condition, and had only 8 patch of tuberculous disease on the lungs, although any of the section of the udder revealed the tubercular baeilli in inconceivable numbers. That COW gave milk up to the day of slaugh- ter, and was not killed for disease, but be-
 cause it was prime fat. In the course ot
 some other investigations, Professor M'Fad-
 yen and Dr. Woodhead came across many
 such cases, which amongst other things
 showed beyond all doubt the fatal operations
 of these germs, For example, three cows
 udders had tuberculosis. Their milk was
 going into one large establishment. In one
 year the death-rate in this establishment
 from consumption was 40 per cent. and
 in another 80 per cent. of the whole.
 The pigs fed with the milk were also found
 to be suffering from what was evidently a
 tubereular condition of the lungs. Not long
 ago 8 number of the pigs were killed and
 tubercles were found in their lungs. And
 what irrefragably proved the connection be-
 tween the milk and the disease was that
 when the milk supply was cut off from the
 surviving pias they escaped tuberculosis.