Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-07-01
CONSUMPTION IN GERMS.
Experiments That Have Thrown Much
Light on an Important Question.

Experiments That Have Thrown Much
Light on an Important Question
DIR. Samuel G. Dixon, professor Of
hygiene in the University of Pennsyl-
vania, who has been conducting a series
Of experiments bearing upon consump-
ton and its prevention, has reached
some interesting results which do much
to explain many mysterious phases Of
that insidious disease. tuberculosis,
as it is known, is not confined to man,
but common among the lower animals,
the cow, horse, sheep, pig, rabbit and
chicken among others, and as these are
largely used for food by man, the doctors
experiments have been directed to as
pertaining whether or not human beings
can contract consumption by partak1ng
Of meat and animals suffering from
tuberculosis or of milk from cows with
tuberculosis of the mammary glands.
The result of several hundred expert
ments conducted at the laboratory OF
the University of Pennsylvania leaves
no room for doubt that consumption can
DO, and beyond question very often is,
contracted by eating tuberculous meats.
1t was found that calves and pigs fed on
milk infected with tuberculous material
from a human source contracted con-
sumption, and the converse would seem
probable.
An especially interesting experiment
Of DR.. Dixon was upon dog. That an
imal has an acid gastric secretion even
stronger than that OF man, and for this
reason many psychologists have select
for p.i roc 10 af hn thnnrV nj
tuberculosis is intercommunicable be-
tween man and animals. Many attempts
to communicate consumption to dogs by
feeding them on tuberculous food have
failed, but not satisfied with these, and
believing that with dogs as with men
some are disposed to consumption while
others escape it, the doctor pushed his
experiments in the hope that he would
lind some of the animals in physical
condition especially susceptible to
tuberculosis. Selecting healthy dog
about five months old DR.. Dixon per-
mitted his stomach to become quite
empty and then gave him as his meal
some infected cows meat.
For several days the dogs diet was
partly made up of tuberculous meat,
md in a short time he began to grow
thin and to present every physical APP
pearance of a consumptive, dying in a
few weeks. The post-mortem examina-
ton gave every indication of tubercu-
osis, and the bealogical tests clearly
demonstrated the presence of tubercle
baeilli in the messenteric glands.
Bymany experiments Of this kind hav-
ing satisfied himself that man can con-
tract consumption from eating tubercu-
lous meat and taking milk from cows
whose mammary glands are affected,
DR.. Dixon suggests that, in order to
prevent this contagion, veterinary in
spectors should be empowered to con-
denim all tuberculous meat, a reasona-
BILE compensation being paid to the
ownors of animals found lin that condi-
ton; and they should visit all milk
iairies and condemn every COW found
suffering from tuberculosis, particularly
those with mammitis. AS a stroug pre-
disposition to tuberculosis is transmits
,ible to offspring, the breeding of tu-
berculous animals should be prohibited
by aw.-Philadelphia Record.
Life in Ocean Abysses.
DR.. Regnard has raised the question
rs to whether corpse which sinks to
very great depth is preserved indefi
nitely or otherwise from putrefaction.
According to his researches, published
i'll the archives of the Biological soci
ETY. of Paris, putrefaction does not take
place in decomposabe substances sub
united to pressure of 600 to 700 at
nospheres. These figures correspond
to a depth of 5000 to 1000 meters at
sea From these experiments it must
not be concluded, according to DR..
Regnard, that there is total absence
of putrefaction i'll the greater depths
of the sea. The curious "abysmal"
fishes discovered in the Challenger
and other expeditions appear to rise
after death, SO that they are sometimes
found on the surface, though, as
rule, they go to pieces, as the sur
rounding pressure diminishes long be
fore they reach the air. Still, there is
no proof that bathy bal or abysmal
micro organisms do not exist; and. if
So they could cause decomposition in
the corpSes of men as well as in the
dead bodies of abysmal fishes. The
question is of considerable medico-leg
and yet greater biological interest, and
1t is Tar from settled. British Medical