«t-'«WSi^P>'^fS:::' -J^U»» -lli^,iip|-»,g^^^^1,g^^ ; ; ^ I FLCWER I /VETEKINAI^YN CORNELL UNIVERSITY. THE THE GIFT OF ROSWELL P. FLOWER FOR THE USE OF THE N. Y. STATE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 1897 Cornell University Library RC 311.K76a Aetiology of tuberculosis 3 1924 000 247 027 The original of tiiis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000247027 ETIOLOGY OF TUBEI^CULOSIS Dr. R. KOCH, Privy Cotmcil. Translated by Rev. T. SAURE, Traiisactinns of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. Reprinted from the America7i Veterinary Review. New York : WILLIAM R. JENKINS, Veterinary Publisher and Bookseller, S51 & 8^3 Sixth Avenue. i8go. PEEFACE. Dr. Koch's treatise on the .Sltiology of Tubercolosis, has been translated with the authorization of the author, and is presented to the medical and veterinary professions of the United States as the most remarkable work on the subject. It is reprinted from the American Veterinary Review, and the translation is due to the Massachusetts State Veterinary Medical Association, who recognized its importance and undertook the labor of the work. The present edition is due to the demand for the treatise in its entirety, and although it is issued without the illustrations of the costly German edition, it will be found of the greatest advantage to all investigations in the subject. That the bacillus of Koch is the cause of tubercular disease ; that to these are due all the different lesions of the various tissues in which it is found implanted ; and that it is then invariably present, though, perhaps at times, difficult to discover, to color, or to isolate ; and that, unless it is there, tuber- culosis DOES NOT EXIST — all this is proved beyond question or doubt in Koch's " .SJtiology." The modes of development, the processes of the biological sJudies which are required for the investigation ; everything discoverable, in fact, connected with this bacillus, are minutely, carefully, and thoroughly described and presented by the author to the inquiring student. "With this work properly appreciated and well studied, there is no longer any reason for error of diagnosis in that fatal affection. The lesions are in many instances so characteristic that any error can scarcely be possible, and yet how frequently may it happen that lesions, of the Inngs, for instance, often peculiar, may be of a tuberculous aspect and yet entirely different in their nature ! The pseudo-tubercules of the lungs, sometimes encountered, have no doubt in some instances led to a diagnosis of alleged phthisis, which would have been of an entirely different nature had the teachings of the author been followed, and the truth discerned, which the absence of the bacilli would have made certain, if it had but been rightly interpreted. " .aetiology of tuberculosis," which has filled so important a place among German scientific authorities, may now perform the same good office for English-speaking veterinarians, and by such of us as may unfortunately have much to do with this disease in the United States, we hope it will be recognized as an instructor and assistant beyond any possibility of rivalry or cavil, or chance of supercedure. .ETIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. A series of investigations of the iEtiology of Tuberculosis which I have been making within the last few years have led me to results which were first reported before the Physiological Society of Berlin, March 24th, 1883 (Berliner klinischo Wochenschrift, 1883, No. 15). My communications at that time, however, could only embrace the most important points, while the more minute description of the attempts was necessariJy reserved for a detailed report. Since then, by continued investigations, many gaps have been filled and new matter added. The report of my labors in the investigation of the ajtioloiry of tuberculosis, completed and en- larged by these researches, is given in the following. The question whether tuberculosis is a disease dependent upon transmitted disease-germs can be approached in different ways, as this has in fact been done. It has been attempted to secure certainty, partly with the aid of clioical observa- tions, partly by means of anatomical and also by experimental investigations. Most uncertain are the results of the experience gathered at the sickbed. It is true, cases occur in the experience of every physician with fair practice, in which he cannot fail to see a transmission of tuberculosis from one person to another. Then, however, follow numerous cases in which every possibility of infection seems to be excluded. Attempts have been made repeatedly to prove the contagious nature of phthisis, but they must be looked upon as failures, as such views have never found acceptance among scientists. Some clinical authorities, to be sure, have not lost view of the possibility of contagion, but on the whole physicians consider phthisis a non-contagious disease, proceeding from constitutional anom- alies. An indication of the infectious charai ter of tuberculosis, which cannot be ignored, was given by pathological anatomy, when Bulil called attention to the connection of miliary tuberculosis with kiise-hcrden,* (a German technical term of which I do not know the meaning in the English language) and offered the prop- osition that general tuberculosis is to be looked upon as a disease which is brought about by the resorption of a virus present in the primary kiisc-herd (cheesy-nodule), hence as it were, by auto-infection. As to the manner in which tuberculous virus spreads itself through the body, the discoveries of Ponfick in regard to the thoracic duct and of Weigert in regard to veinous tubercles in miliary tuberculosis have given light. However, these facts only prove the spread of tub- erculous virus in the body itself, without proving the transmission from one individual to another, in which latter the contagious nature really consists. With this last question experimental pathology has occupied itself in the most searching manner. The course taken in experimental investigations of the infectious nature of tuberculosis has been described of late very minutely, (cf, Johne, Die Ge- schichte der Tuberculose. Leipzig, 1883), so that I can omit the historical details and confine myself to a few remarks on the more inportant heads. •CUeesy nodules. — 9. * JSTIOLOGY OF TUBEECULOSI8 Solitary, incomplete and negative attempts to generate tubercnlosis artificially (vera made towards the end of the last century. The first successful attempts were made by Klencke, who by inoculation of miliary and infiltrated tubercles from the human being into the cervical veins r-f rabbits, brought about a wide- spread tuberculosis of the lungs and liver. Klencke must therefore be pronounced the discoverer of experimental tuberculosis. He did not continue his attempts, and so they were almost forgotten. In a systematic and thorough manner experi- mental tuberculosis was worked out by Villemin. He not only inoculated tuber- culous substances from the human subject, but also from the pearl disease of cattle, and showed by experiment the identity of pearl disease and tuberculosis. Ville- min's investigations seemed already, by the number of experiments, by their careful execution and comparison with opposing attempts bearing upon the same question, to have decided the question in favor of the infection theory. Never- theless the numerous investigators who repeated Villemin's attempts according to the methods suggested by him or in modified ways, arrived at very contradictory results. The defenders of the mfcction theory, especially Klebs, souglit to improve the experimental technique and to free it from the errors clinging to it; the op- ponents, on the contrary, strove to prove that the tuberculous substance possessed no virulent properties, and true tuberculosis could be produced by inoculation with material in which tuberculosis did not exist. This dispute was first settled by the experiments of Cohnheim and Salomonsen who, with this end in view, in- oculated the anterior chamber of the eyes of rabbits. It was an exceedingly happy idea to make use of the rabbit eye as the place of inoculation. From the nature of the case, those cases in which tuberculous substance only has been inoc- ulated must be distinguished from those in which other infectious material has been combined with the tuberculous virus. In subcutaneous inoculation, such materials often produce more or less widespread caseous infiltrations, which are not unlike the tuberculous cheesy products. In the eye, on the contrarj', they cause an inflammation which rapidly runs its course, which can in no case be mistaken for the inoculated tuberculosis, which is slow and unique in its development. This inoculated tuberculosis, when the experiment is successful, takes such a course that it is always manifest to the investigator. After a somewhat prolonged stage of incubation little gray nodules appear in the iris, scarcely visible to the naked eye and proceeding from the transplanted portions of tubcrculnus substance. The number of these nodules increases gradually, they themselves grow, become yellowish in the center, become cheesy and show as well macroscopically as mi- croscopically all the typical characteristics of genuine tuberculous nodules. Tuberculous infection is, moreover, not confined to the eye, but spreads itself later through the entire organism; it attacks especially the neighboring lymphatic glands, the lungs, spleen, liver and kidneys. According to the united testimony of Cohnheim and Salomonsen and all other experimenters, who have repeated these attempts, an iris-tuberculosis has in no case followed the inoculation with non-tuberculous substances. More than this, a spontaneous case of iris-tuberculosis in rabbits has never been observed. This method of infection is thereiore su- perior to all others in so far as that the influence of unintentional errors in attempt is shut out, errors which so easily creep into the experiments in subcutaneous inoculation and in transplantation into the abdominal cavity. The chance of ^ETIOLOGY OP TUBERCULOSIS. O mistaking artificial tuberculosis for that arising spontaneously is also completely excluded. Therefore in comparing the attempts of Cohuheim and Salomonsen with those previously made, they must be admitted to be completely free from objection, and by them it is proved that the most different tuberculous substances contain a specific and individual element. Of what character this infectious matter might be, whether it be formed by means of organisms independent, or provided with unvarying properties, which force themselves into the body as parasites and communicate tuberculosis to it, or whether the infectious material exists only in certain conditions of the body and consists of organized or unorganiz2d formations arising from its own ingredients, was a question that for the time being could not be decided. But after the results, which have been attained of late years regarding the cetiology of many infectious diseases, the possibility that also the cause of tuberculosis was to be sought in some sort of micro-orgamsms, seems to be indicated. In order to obtain light on this point, it was necessary to make use of all that experience which had proved itself useful in the examination of other infectious diseases, and the same course of investigation was to be chosen which in other cases had shown itself most to the purpose. To make the best use of these advantages, the attempts were to be made in the following manner: In the first place, it must be decided whether form elements, not belonging to the elements of the body, or arising from them, are present in the diseased parts. If the existence of such can be proved, then we must investigate whether the same be organized and whether they offer any signs of independent life, among which independent motion, (for which molecular mo- tion is very often mistaken), growth, increase and generation are to be reckoned. Further, the relations to their surroundings, the conduct of the components of the neighboring textures, their diffusion in the body, their appearance at the va- rious stages of the disease, and other circumstances must be traced, which, with more or less probability, show a primary connection between these formations and the disease. It is possible that the facts gained in this manner may afford such proof that only the most extreme scepticism can maintain that micro-organ- isms found are no cause, but only an accompaniment of the disease. Often, of course, this objection is justified, and therefore it is necessary for a complete system of proof that one should not confine himself to showing the co-existence of the disease and parasites, but that, more than this, these parasites must be shown to be the real cause of the disease. This can only be done by removing the parasites from the diseased organism completely, and freeing them from all products of the disease to which a hurtful influence could be ascribed, and that by the introduction of the isolated parasites mto the healthy organism, the dis- ease with all its peculiar characteristics should be produced anew. An example may serve to explain what has just been said. If the blood of animals which have died from inflammation of the spleen be examined, there are always found therein numerous minute, rod-shaped, colorless, motionless forms. One could not see immediately that these minute rods are of a vegetable nature, and indeed in the beginning they were often held for lifeless crystalline bodies. First from the circumstance that they were seen to grow from spores, and that from the spores little rods were developed anew, could it be decided with certainty that they possessed life and belonged to the lowest class of plants. Further, 6 iHTIOLOGY 01' TUBEECULOSIS. • when the very smallest amount of the blood of an animal dying of inflam- mation of the spleen is inoculated into another animal, said animal invariably dies of the same disease, and it also contains the little rods, the so-called "bacilli" of inflammation of the spleen. This does not prove, however, that by the inoculation of the little wands, the disease was communicated. In order to know whether the bacilli, and not other components of the blood of inflammation of the spleen, produces said inflammation, the bacilli must be separated from the blood, and be inoculated alone. The isolation of the bacilli can be ascertained with most certainty by contin- ued cultivation apart from all other things. To this end, a small quantity of blood containing bacilli is placed upon some fixed nutrient soil, on which the bacilli are able to grow, f Jr instance, nutrient gelatine or boiled potatoes. Here they soon begin to increase very rapidly, while the other components of the blood, crrpusclcs and serum, remain unchanged. After two or three days, when the bacilli have formed a dense mass of spore-hoIding threads, the smallest possible of the no longer blood-red, but whitish looking mass, is taken and again placed upon nutrient gelatine or boiled potatoes. The bacilli increase in exactly the same manner as in the first planting, and form a dense white mass on the potato, and already in this second transplanting the most careful examination with the microscope will scarcely show any traces of the other components of the blood. In like manner the continued transplanting is carried on. After the third or fourth, the bacilli may be considered free from all other parts of the blood, which at first were planted with them. If the transplantations now are repeated twenty or fifty times, or still oftener, then it may be concluded with all imaginable cer- tainty, that not the least taint of the disease clings to the bacilli. Even inter- nally they could hide nothing of that kind ; for the finest planted bacilli are also no longer present, and their descendants for many generations have obtained the necessary material for their growth from their fostering soil, the potato. The pure breed obtained in this way has no connection with the diseased organism from whose blood the first planting came, and with the products of disease, which belong to animal metamorphosis. Nevertheless, as soon as they are inoculated into a healthy animal, they produce the fatal disease. The inoculated animal sickens as quickly and with the same symptoms as if it had been inoculated with blood fresh from a diseased animal, or had spontaneously become diseased with inflammation of the spleen, and in its blood appear the same innumerable bacilli as in the natural disease, which have the same properties as the well known bacilli of inflammation of the spleen. In view of these facts, thtre is no other explanation, than that said bacilli are not an accompaniment of inflam- mation of the spleen, but the real cause of this disease. Now inflammation of the spleen does not always present the same clinical appearance; ils form varies in the difllerent species of animals ; in the case of man it can run its course with the symptoms of a general infection, without prominent local dis- turbances, or it can remain purely local and confine itself to a certain point on the outer skin, on the gut, or on the larynx. Nevertheless also in these cases, if the characteristic bacilli are found in the diseased places, we must consider them as the cause of the disease ; for their disease-producing qualities are known to us, and wo cannot very well imagine that in the tissues of the same organism the ^riOLOGY OF T0BEECTJLOSIS. i bacilli are at one time harmless, at another time disease-producing parasites. These conclusions are so indisputable that probably nobody questions them, and that in science the bacilli of inflammation of the spleen are considered the cause as well of the usual typical disease as appearing in our domestic animals, as also of the clinically varying type which appears in man. The course just sketched, which those who strove to prove the parasitic nature of inflammation of the spleen have taken with success, and the con- clusions necessarily obtained from the results, I have placed at the foundation of my investigation of the tetiology of tuberculosis. These had to employ them- selves in the first place with the proof of disease-producing organisms, then with their isolation, then with their inoculation. I now go over to the description of these single divisions of the investigation. I. — Proof of ths presence of disease-producing organisms in the organs changed hy tuberculosis and in the separation of the latter. Disease-producing organisms, which have the size of inflammation-of-the- spleen bacilli and like these, appear in the blood in large numbers, or those which, like the " nekurrensperochaeten " attract the eye, offer no especial difficulties in investigation, and the proof of such micro-organisms can be obtained by ordinary optical helps. The case is different, however, when it is necessary to prove the existence of minute bacteria present in the tissues in only small numbers, especi- ally when cells are heaped up or broken down in the spots concerned, which is almost always the case. Then it is necessary to use the more delicate technical helps of microscopy, as especial methods of preparation and differential coloring, and to pursue the investigations with the best optical apparatus, oil-immersion systems and Abbe's illuminating apparatus. Also in regard to tuberculosis it was to be expected that to show that special disease-producing organisms do actually exist, might offer special difficulties, as they had already been much sought for, and nothing found that could give con- fidence in their existence. I began investigations with material in which infec- tious matter might be expected with certainty, for instance, in freshly developed and still grey tubercles from the lungs of animals which had been killed three or four weeks after inoculation. From these lungs, hardened in alcohol, sections were made and examined according to the most approved methods for proving the existence of bacteria. Grey tubercles were also crushed, spread out on glass covers, dried, and then examined with reference to the existence of micro-organ- isms. All attempts to find bacteria or other micro-organisms in these prepared specimens proved unsuccessful. In former experiments it had been attempted to color the bacteria as strongly and as differently from the surrounding tissue as possible, and in such attempts it had been proved that in certain cases the addi- tion of alkalies to the color-solutions offered essential advantages ; therefore this treatment was adopted. Of the usual analine color the methyline blue will bear the greatest addition of alkali, on which account this coloring material was chosen, and just so much potash-lye was added to a watery solution of the same as to form no precipitate, and that the liquid remained clear. For the prepara- tion of this mixture 1 ccm. of a concentrated alcoholic methyline-blue solution and 200 ccm. of distilled water were mixed, well shaken and during repeated shaking 0.3 ccm. of 10 proc. potash-lye was added. When glass-covered prepara- 8 ETIOLOGY OP TUBEECULOSrS. tions had been treated twenty-four hours ■with this color solution, there appeared in the tuberculous mass very fine stafE-shaped forms, which, as further investiga- tion proved, had the power of increasing and forming spores, and therefore be- long to the same group of organisms as the inflammation-of-the-spleen bacilli. In section preparations it was incomparably more difficult to recognize these bacilli among the thickly heaped grains and masses of detritus, and it was there- fore attempted, following the example of Weigert, who, succeeding in the coloring of the inflammation-of-thc-spleen bacilli a different color from the surrounding tissues, to make the tuberculous bacilli more plainly visible, by similar differen- tiating color reaction. This end was reached by the use of a concentrated watery solution of vesuvian, with which the blue colored, covered glass preparations and section preparations were treated so long, till to the naked eye, it seemed colored brown. Under microscopic examination it was then seen that only the previously blue-colored cell grains and the products of their disorganization had taken the brown color, but that the tuberculous bacilli remained a beautiful blue color, and, in consequence of this were very plainly to be distinguished from their surround- ings, so that even in the masses of grains, thickly heaped together, they were easily recognized. In the use of methyline blue in the manner just described, the bacilli, however, do not take a very intense color, and it requires a certain amount of practice to be able to prove their existence everywhere in tuberculous objects. Another method which gives to the bacilli a very strong color, we owe to Ehrlich. I use the same now exclusively, and earnestly recommend it to all who are beginning their studies of tuberculous bacilli. Eurlich's method has since received many unimportant modifications, partly improvements. Among the latter I would reckon the proportions of solutions as settled by Weigert and the shortening of the color solution, a change recommended by Rindfleisch. If I describe the method in which I use Ehrlich's treatment as exactly as possible, I am nevertheless not of the opinion that the modification which I have followed is the best, or that just as good results are not to be gained by other modifications of the treatment. But the coloring of the tuberculous bacilli appears still to offer difficulties to many investigators, and for this reason, it will certainly not seem superfluous to give as exact directions as possible for the method of coloring. In order to prepare the color solution, aniline water and saturated alcoholic solutions of methyl violet (to be distinguished from methyline blue) or fuchsine are necessary. The aniline water is prepared in the following manner : About 5 ccm. of pure aniline, an oil-like liquid, at first colorless, afterwards becoming brown, is poured into 100 ccm. of distilled water and this mixture is shaken re- peatedly. From three to four per cent, of aniline dissolves in the water and the rest remains in the bottom of the dish in the form of thick drops. After a sat- urated solution of aniline in water has been formed in this way, which is the case after about half an hour, this aniline water is filtrated through a filter, which has been moistened in order to separate it from the rest of the undissolved ani- line. The filtrate must be clear as water and colorless, and no little drops of aniline must be suspended in it. If such have passed the filter, the liquid must be filtrated again. One obtains the second ingredience of the color solution, the saturated solu- tion of methyl violet, by taking not too small a quantity (20 grm.) of dry methyl ETIOLOGY OP TUBEEODLOSIS. 9 violet in a well closing glass vessel, pouring over it 100-150 ccm. of absolute alcohol and shaking it repeatedly. After standing a da}', there must still he un- dissolved methyl violet at the bottom of the vessel, which of course can also be dissolved and made use of by gradually pouring on more alcohol. When in place of methyl violet, fuchsine is used, which seems to offer certain advantages for permanent preparations, one also proceeds in the just described manner. After this, the alcoholic methyl violet solution and the aniline water are to be mixed, and according to Weigert in the proportion of 100 ccm. aniline water to 11 ccm. methyl violet solution. I add to this mixture 10 ccm. of absolute al- cohol, because I have found that then the color solution remains usable in a well closed glass for about ten days and does not need to be filtered each time before using. The preparations which are to be examined with referei.ce to tuberculous bacilli are to be prepared in the following manner : Covering glasses are to be freed from fat and all other extraneous matter, which might prevent adhesion of the substance to be examined, by washing in nitric acid and cleaning with alco- hol. The substance is then to be spread out on the covering glass in as thin a section as possible. This procedure succeeds best when soft caseous masses are treated ; they can be spread out evenly and thin with a scalpel or a needle. Fir- mer, crumby caseous masses must be carefully crushed with the scalpel and ar- ranged on the glass by spreading out repeatedly. Still more difficult is it to prepare a little tuberculous knot, which possesses a compact consistence. It must be completely crushed and pressed to pieces on the covering glass. The preparation of covering glasses with sputum also demands a special technique. One must not content himself with taking any chance Jist of mucus from the sputum, since the sputum consists not only of the secretion of the diseased parts of the lungs, but also of bronchial secretion and mucus from the mouth and nose. It is on this account necessary to examine only those parts of the sputum which have separated themselves from the diseased lungs, that is to say, the yellowish lumps which often swim solitarily in the frothy slimy liquid, which to be sure often forms the greatest part of the sputum. Such a lump of this yellowish, ex- tremely tough mass should be drawn to the edge of the glass, then a little bit of it separated with the scalpel, drawn out of the liquid and on to the inner wall of the glass. Here it can easily be further divided, and be taken off in as large par- ticles as one wishes to transfer to the Covering glass. On fhis it is spread out very evenly and thinly, and any residue should be brought to a corner of the cov- ering glass, and from there removed with blotting paper. After the covering glass has been prepared in this manner, the section spread out upon it must be allowed to become thoroughly dry. Not until this is the case can the covering glass be heated temporarily, in order to make the section insolu- ble in watery fluids, with which it is now brought in contact. The covering glass can be put into a drying box heated to 110° for twenty minutes, or one can hold the covering glass with a pincette, and draw it several times, not too quickly, through a gas or spirit flame. The prepared section of the covering glass is dur- ing this process to be on the upper side and is not directly touched by the flame. That the forms of the bacteria cells, etc , which occur in the section are not changed in the least by this careful process, can be shown by the following ex- 10 ^TIOLOSY OF TUBKECULOSIS. periment. Of several covering glasses, provided -with a dried on section, let tbe first not be Iieated at all, the second drawn once tlirough the flame, the third twice, etc. When after this the covering glasses are treated with color solutions, it appears that the coloring of the cell grains and bacteria shows r.o difference between the one not heated at all and those drawn through the flame from one to four times. Also the forms remain unchanged. If the heating is carried far- ther and the covering glasses oftener drawn through the flame, the bacteria gradually lose the power of taking the coloring material, while the cell grains become colored even after very intense heating. In the covering glasses which have not been heated the section separates itself more or less, often entirely, also the dissolving " eiwoisskiirper " (white-of-egg bodies) form with the coloring matter precipitates, which cover the section and make the recognition of bacteria very difficult and even impossible. Better results are given by the covering glasses which have been once or twice drawn through the flame, but those drawn through three times give the best. One of these last the section clings uniformly, the " eiweisskorper " are insoluble or so nearly so that no more precipitates are formed, also the bacteria and cell grains take r.he color, with an even degree of intensity, while the surrounding substance remains wholly or almost wholly un- colored. On this account I always proceed thus: After the sections spread out on the covering glasses have become completely dry, which always takes place in a few minutes, I draw them three times with moderate quickness through a Bunsen burner. The color-solution is placed in a watch glass or a flat vessel, and after the heating the covering glass is laid face downward on the liquid, that it swims. One must be careful that there are no air bubbles under the glass, as otherwise the section would not he wet in these places and therefore not colored. Then let the color-solution be so far heated that it just begins to bubble, and after once boiling leave the coloring glass upon it about ten minutes; the result will be a sufficiently powerful coloring. Better results are nevertheless reached when the covering glass swims for several hours on the unheated solution. In all diffi- cult cases, when one wishes to prove the existence of single bacilli, it is well to leave the covering glass twelve hours or longer in the color-solution. When one wislics to examine sections of tissues with reference to tuberculous bacilli, pieces of the organ in question, not too large, are to be well hardened in absolute alcohol. Other hardening processes make difficult or even hinder the coloring of the bacilli. Tlie sections netd not be very thin, because by means of the double coloring, single bacilli can be distinguished very easily even in quite thick sections. Nevertheless, it is more to the purpose to prepare large sections, since the distribution of the bacilli is often very irregular, therefore it is possible that in email sections no bacilli may be found. The use of the microtome in the preparation of the sections is for this reason almost invaluable. The sections are immediately laid into the color-solution and remain in the same at least twelve hours. They can remain in it several days without injury. The sections as well as the layer clinging to the covering glass have, when taken out of the cjlor-solution after the given time, a dark blue, almost black-blue color. In this condition all parts of the tissue are almost evenly dark colored, and it is scarcely possible to recognize the coarser structures. In order to make the preparation suitable for microscopic investigation, a great part of the coloring ETIOLOGY OF TCBEECULOSIS. 11 material must be removed again. Tliis can be done i:i various ways. In the method originally used by me, of coloring with all^aline rautliyline-bluo solution, I liad found tliat the blue coloring of the constituent parts of the tissue cou'.d be driven out by treating with a solution of vesuviau. The same can ''c carried out in the preparations which are colored according to Ehrlich's method. Wlicn these preparations are rinsed off in water and then put into a concentrated watery solution of vesuvian, moved bacli and forth in the same, and finally put into alcohol, one succeeds in almost completely drawing out the dark blue roloiing. The preparations, nevertheless, lose their color more quickly and completely by Ehrlich's method of treating them with nitric acid. That this can be done by other aniline coloring materials, as for example the above mentioned vesuvian, I have mentioned only for the reason that by many the effect of mtric acid has been erroneously held for something specific, but this is not the case, since other acids work similarly. For taking the color out of the preparations, nitric acid, which has been diluted with two parts of water, is commonly used. So strong a concentration of the acid is nevertheless not absolutely necessary, and of late I use acid diluted with from three to four parts of water. Perhaps one can go even farther in the dilu- tion. One should take care, however, that the nitric acid is free from nitrous acid. When I spoke of the uncoloring of preparations by means of nitric acid, I fol- lowed the description which Ehrlich gave of his process. By the treatment of the covering-glass preparations with nitric acid, this term is exact, when the preparations are not intensely colored ; after a stronger coloring, which gives decid- edly bettor and more reliable results, the nitric acid after a few minutes fails to take all color from the dyed section, and section preparations, which, as it has already been carefully shown, must be colored a longer time and very intensely, always keep, after the nitric acid treatment, quite a darli colormg. The ex- pression " uncolor " is not to be understood literally. The failure of bacilli-color- ing appears in most cases to have had its foundation in this very thing. The experimenters thought that the preparations after treatment with nitric acid must be wholly colorless, and in order to reach this, partly colored too little the prepa- rations, and partly left them too long in the acid. When section preparations have lain in the solution twelve hours, and are then put into nitric acid, they lose their black-blue color in a few seconds and take a greenish-blue appearance. If they are then put into distilled water, the tone of the color changrs directly. It becomes again noticeably darker and changes into blue, with a bit of violet. The nitric acid, therefore, has left a c'Joring matter in the preparation, which is insoluble in water, and in connection ■^i'.li water takes a darker tone. That this remainder of coloring matter is not easily soluble, even in nitric acid, can be easily shown. If the section be again dipped into the acid, their color will again become greenish-blue, but not paler than in the first treatment with the acid, and if washed again with water, they will again take the former dark coloring. I conclude from this that a longer remaining of the preparations in the acid is of no value for their further uncoloring, and 1, ave them therefore, only a few seconds, at the highest half a minute in the same. On the contrary, I have found that the coloring matter m the preparations remain- 12 ETIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. ing unaffected by nitric acid, is soluble in alcohol from sixty to seventy per cent, if the preparations are put immediately from the acid into the alcohol. A longer remaining of the preparations in alcohol appears to make the coloring matter finally insoluble also for alcohol, and it is therefore to the purpose not to wash the preparations in water after their treatment with nitric acid, but to place them directly into the alcohol. ' The method of uncoloring followed by me is as follows : By the help of a platinum wire, which is melted into a little glass staff, the preparations are lifted out of the color-solution and laid into nitric acid diluted with three to four parts of water. In this they arc moved back and forth for some seconds, until they have taken a greenish blue color, and are then put directly into a vessel with 60 per cent, alcohol. In the alcohol they remain only about ten to fifteen minutes, after which they receive the after-coloring now to be described. In preparations treated with nitric acid and alcohol the component parts of the tissue are wholly colorless, or possess only a slight bluish tone of color, while the tuberculous bacilli have retained an intense blue color. Relative posi- tions of the bacilli to their surroundings, are, owing to the nature of the prepar- ations, difBcult of proof. It is also very difficult to find single bacilli in the tissue, whoso structure is made as good as completely invisible by the peculiar method of illumination, which will be described later, and for this cause it is necessary to give to the tissues a coloring of the nucleus. In order to obtain as striking a contrast as possible, between the coloring of the bacilli and the cell- grains, a yellow or light brown is chosen for the supplementary coloring material, when the bacilli are blue ; a green or blue is chosen when they are red. For the first case vesuvian is best adapted, for the second methyline blue. Both coloring materials must nevertheless be used only in weak solutions, and not for too long a time, in order that just sufficient coloring of the grains may be obtained, lest single bacilli be hidden by too darkly dyed masses of grains. I use for the sec- ond coloring a watery, freshly filtered vesuvian-solution, which to a depth of 3 ccm. is just barely transparent. On this the uncolored covering-glass preparations arc so laid that they float with the prepared section downwards. Section prepar- ations remain m it some minutes. It is not necessary that the section prepara- tions, when they are brought from the alcohol into the vesuvian solution, should bo completely colorless, because they must later be again treated with alcohol, in order to get rid of the water in them, and will then lose whatever blue coloring matter will have remained. One takes the preparations out of the vesuvian solution and puts them again into ten per cent alcohol and out of this into absolute alcohol. The further treat- ment IS the familiar one, only it is to be recommended that for brightening the preparation, instead of oil of cloves, oil of turpentine, or still better, ccdar-oil be used, as these do not draw the aniline out of the preparations. With reference to enclosing them with Canada balsam, I would say that a balsam diluted with oil of turpentine appears to be the best adapted. Very thick balsam, which must be warmed in order to enclose the preparation, must not be used, because in warming, the tuberculous bacilli usually lose their color quickly. Covering glass prepprations can be examined immediately after the washing off of the vesuvian soluuon with water, or they can be dried again and enclosed ETIOLOGY OF* T0BEECaLOSIS. 18 in Canada balsam. For the examination of tlie sputum witli reference to tuber- culous bacilli, the second coloring can as a rule be omitted, so that the microsco- pic examination of such sputum preparation follows immediately upon the treatment of the same with nitric acid and alcohol. For the sake of a general view, I will recapitulate briefly the whole coloring process : covering glass preparations dried m the thinnest possible section, after the drying, three times heated in the flame ; section preparations of objects, which are well hardened m alcohol ; coloring of a solution consisting of 100 com. of aniline water, 11 com. of alcoholic methyl violet solution or fuchsine, 10 ccm. of absolute alcohol ; the preparations remain in the color solution at least twelve hours (the coloring of the covering glasses can be shortened by warm- ing of the solution) : treatment of the preparations with diluted (1:3) nitric acid for some seconds ; washing in 60 per cent, alcohol for several minutes ; (for cov- ering glasses, moving back and forth in alcohol several times is sufficient) ; second coloring in diluted vesuvian solution or methyline blue for several minutes ; wash- ing again in 60 per cent, alcohol, getting rid of water by means of absolute alcohol, brightening in cedar oil ; microscopic examination of the preparation ; enclosing of the preparation in Canada balsam if the same is to be preserved. As to the microscopic examination of the objects prepared m this manner, all that I have saidin other works* about objects colored for the microscope, holds true also for these. In this case also structural relations, which make themselves manifest by the varying refractive power of the single parts of the tissue, are not to be settled ; it concerns us only to see the various color relations of the micro- scopic objects, that is to say, representations of absorption, as clearly and sharply as possible. The structural image whose effect is only disturbing must therefore be gotten rid of, which, as I have shown, can be done most completely with the help of the well-known illuminating apparatus of Abbe. The peculiar illumina- tion which this apparatus affords whenit is used without " abblendung," cannot be borne by all systems of lenses. The last must be constructed with special refer- ence to this method of illumination. The greater an opening angle a system possesses, the better it is adapted for the observation of the images of absorption, with help of Abbe's illuminating apparatus. For this reason oil-immersion sys- tems can accomplish the most in the investigation of colored objects. The covering-glass prepaiations, if rightly prepared, must possess so little thickness that the structure ;s formed of a single layer of objects, and in and of itself is little to be considered. These preparations can on this account be exam- ined simply in water and in case of need, a system of water-immersion is sufficient for them, if the field of vision be suflBciently brightened by a condenser. In the case of section-preparations, it is, on the contrary, impossible to set aside the structure formed by so many layers of tissue one above the other, unless the prep- aration is laid in a liquid which has high power of refraction. It is necessary to do away with the differences in refraction of the tissue, and to use the full illuminating power of Abbe's apparatus, and must use its full power to the best advantage through the large opening angle of an oil-system. One may easily con- *Uiitersucliuiigeii ueber dis Aetiologie der Wundinfectiouskranklieiteii. Leipzig 1878, p. 31, etc. Mittlieilunengen aua dem Kaiserlictien GesundlieltBainte. 1E81, Vol. 1, p. 9. 14 .ETIOLOGY OF TUBEBCL'LOSIS. viDce himself of the necessity of the optic helps here described as absolutely necessary, if one first examines a properly colored section in -water and examines it microscopically by a dry system or a water-immersion system and a compara- tively narrow " blendi " (blind or opening). Fine distinctions of color, and small colored bacteria in tissues, which are to any extent rich in grains, can under these conditions Ecarcely be distinguish( d. Also placing the section in glycerine changes almost nothing, because the differences in refraction of the parts of the tissue are equalized much too slowly and insutBciently. A noticeable improve- mrnt is gaimd by brightening the preparation by means of highly refractive liquids, such as oil of cloves, oil of cedar, etc.; for the brightening rests tipon the snore or less thorough destruction of the structure-image. But even this improve- ment is not sufficient to allow the color-pictures to appear iu full clearness and sharpness. Only the quantity of light pouring in from all sides by means of Abbe's illuminating apparatus and the od-system can fulfill this task. Who only cares to examine covering-glass preparations, without caring for complete cer- tainty with regard to the state of things, for him a microscope with water- immersion system and without illuminating apparatus, will in case of need prove itself suflScient. Dry systems are not to be used for bacteria investigati ns. As soon as reliable investigations of finer bacteria are to be undertaken, or if one wishes to gain an independent judgment as to the newer results of bacteria re- search, it is absolutely necessary to have at hand the very best optic helps, that is to say oil-immersion systems and Abbe's illuminating apparatus. With regard to the magnifying powers which must be used for the examination of tubercu- lous bacilli, I will remark that 500-700 fold magnifying power is most to the purpose, and that this is best reached with an oil system -jV of an inch and the corresponding oculars. In the practical use of the coloring processes just described, the component parts of the tissue of the body conduct themselves almost without exception dif- ferently from the tuberculous bacilli. While the latter, in spite of the treatment with nitric acid, alcohol and vcsuvian, keeps the dark blue color which they have taken, the remaining animal tissues, as already mentioned, lose the Kuo color again, and in the second coloring the grains of the cells as well as the products of destruc- tion of the latter, further the little grains of the plasma-cells are dyed brown. Only some parts of the tissue make an exception, as hair and epidermis, wtiich remain more or less blue-colored. Since in these last tuberculous bacilli are hardly to be sought for, the finding cf bacilli in the tissues is made exceedingly easy, by their characteristic conduct towards aniline coloring matters. Even in the closest masses of grains and in the midst of broken down cells, which often take all possible forms, from the smallest little points and micrococci-like forms, to the longish staff-like forms, one can with absolute certainty distinguish single tuberculous bacilli from these closely similar forms by means of their dark blue color, which in the brown-colored surrounding and owing to (he light-absorbing power of the brown ground appear as staffs almost colored black. This noticeable difference in the color-reaction holds nevertheless, as must constantly be repeated, only for the method of coloring described here. A different preparation of the objects than the quick and good al- cohol hardening of the organs, made the condition here, apoears to bring about ^tioJdgy of tubeeculosis. 15 other relations. For while usually the little grains of the plasma-cells conduct themselves like the cell-grains and show a different coloring from the tuberculous bacilli, I have lately seen a preparation, made by Dr. Benda's assistant in the pathological institute in GEittingen, in which tuberculous bacilli were not to be found, but on the contrary the grams of the plasma-cells showed themselves colored blue. Probably in this case the object from which the section was prepared had received a treatment with cromic acid or had not been hardened quickly enough in alcohol. Accident comes to our help in proving the existence of tuberculousbacilli, since not alone the parts of the tissue lake a different coloring, but also all other bacteria which I have known until now and examined, with the exception of the Icpra- bacilli to be mentioned later, also react in an opposite manner from the tuberculous bacilli under Ehrlich's method of coloring. Bacteria coming from the mouth are almost always to be found in phtisic sputum. I have never seen that one of these numerous sorts of bacteria showed the same color-reaction as the tuberculous bacilli. This observation has been confirmed by many reliable investigations, and can be considered as an established fact. The same is true of the tuberculous bacilli occurring in the contents of the intestines, when tuberculous ulcers are present. When this sort of discharge is prepared and colored in the prescribed manner on the covering glass, it appears to consist almost wholly of bacteria; they fill the layer in such thick masses. But without exception they take a dif- ferent color from the tuberculous bacilli, and especially is this the case in the smaller sorts of bacilli, which might perhaps lead one to mistake them for. A peculiar behavior is shown by a large sort of bacilli, which form somewhat large, oval spores standing on ends, in that the spores often keep a plainly manifest, some- times indeed an intense blue color, while the substance of the bacillus is itself dyed brown. According to all appearance these spores only take the color a short time after their formation, but remain uncolored after they are older. Among the many spores of the contents of the intestines which belong to other sorts of bacilli, until now none have been found which took the color of the tuberculous bacilli. Also the spores of the inflammation-of-the-spleen bacilli, hay bacilli and others, which Dr. Gaffke examined at my instance with reference to this color-reaction, remained uncolored. On the contrary Dr. Gaffke found during these investigations that the spores of ' ' shimmel-pilzc " take a strong blue. Also a certain kind of yeast seems to take the color. Since a mistaking of tuberculous bacilli for the above mentioned spores and yeast is impossible, their diagnosis so far as it rests upon the color-reaction is not thereby prejudiced. Of late I have examined many sorts of bacteria-bearing substances, such as decaying meat infusion, decomposing urine, blood milk, vegetable infusion, mire from swamps with Ehrlich's coloring method, but have never found bacteria which take the same color-reaction as the tuberculous bacilli. I must therefore consider all claims for the appearance of bacteria which conduct themselves in regard to color exactly like the tuberculous bacilli, and which are said to be found in sputum, decaying liquids, the contents of the intestines in healthy men and in swamp-mud, for mistakes and resting upon an erroneous use of the coloring method. I feel myself so much the more justified in this opinion since I almost daily see examples of the difficulties which the use of this certainly rather com- plicated color technique oilers to most people. 1^ Etiology ob' TaBEEC^tosis. Asidefrom the tuberculous bacilli, until now only one sort of bacteria has been known which takes color in the same way as the tuberculous bacilli ; these are, as I have already mentioned in my first communication, the Icpra-baciUi. This fact is so much the more worthy of notice, since not only the parasites belong- in;: to tuberculosis and to lepra arc similar in many ways and plainly nearly related, but, as ii well known, those two diseases stand very near to each other anatom- ically ns well as setiologically. To be sure, the coloring propertiesof the two sorts of bacilli are not identical. For although the lepra-bacilli can be colored by the fame process as the tuberculous bacilli, the opposite is not the case. The first take, as is well known and as Neisser first proved, the nucleus-coloring of Weigert, which the last do not. However similar the two bacilli are in figure, size, &c., as soon as it comes to a diagnostic distmction, it becomes easy to recognize them through their different response to Weigert's nucleus coloring. The example of the lepra-bacilli already teaches that the tuberculous bacilli occupy in no way an entirely exceptional position in regard to their response to coloring matters ; it is therefore not improbable that in course of time other sorts of bacteria will be found, which possess the same or similar coloring properties as the tuberculous bacilli. But any influence on the apprehension of the astiolog- ical importance of the tuberculous bacilli would not be exercised by such a discovery. For the special reaction against coloring matters is nevertheless not the only specific property of the tuberculous bacilli. They possess, as we shall see later also in biological relations, a number of other peculiarities, which give still more weighty reasons for separating them from the known bacteria as a specific sort. In all such considerations it is very much to the point to bring to remembrance how the same relations exist in inflammation of the spleen. One will then see that inflammation-of-the-spleen bacilli possess no specific coloring qualities and nevertheless, as is universally acknowledged, are bacteria of a distinct kind and form the cause of inflammation of the spleen. Exactly the same might be the case with tuberculous bacilli if they did not accidentally distinguish themselves from other bacteria by color-reaction. If the latter is nevertheless a fact, it is cer- tainly of value in diagnosis, but it is a great error to think that with the specific color-reaction of the tuberculous bacilli, their {Etiological importance stands and falls. Further it appears to me not improbable that in the near future still further methods may be found by means of which tuberculous bacilli can be colored. •Elirlich's coloring method has already experienced many modifications, of which theoretically the most worthy of notice is the fact found by Ziehl, that anihne can be replaced by other substances, such as phenol, — C|.H4(OH)2 — resorcine, &c. Tlie statements of some authors, that the tuberculous bacilli may be dyed with pure fuchsine appear to hint that still other ways exist .n which the coloring can KQceced. The diagnostic importance of Ehrlich's method, even if other methods which have no exclusive character are found, suffers by no means. For that remains in spite of all a well established fact, that by strict following of Ehrlich's method the tuberculous bacilli conduct themselves in a manner wholly peculiar to them and are thereby to be distinguished from all till now known bacteria. The method has the value of a chemic reaction, which has made possible the dis- tinction of substances difiieult to divide, nevertheless only under the condition ^ETIOLOGY OF TUBEECtTLOSIS. 17 that it be used exactly according to tlie given directions. It would be of special interest to be able to give the bacilli a brown or yellow coloring, because only under this condition would it be possible to get usable photographs of the tubercu- lous bacilli. Of late I have, to be sure, succeeded, with the help of a previously given treatment of the preparations, with a very weak solution of kali (j^^ p. M ) to color the tuberculous bacilli a quite intense brown, nevertheless the preparations do not meet the demands required for photography. It ia to be hoped that this difficulty will be overcome. But for the present I have been obliged to do with- out photographs, however much I have wished by means of photographs to render possible a reliable comparison between the form and size of tuberculous bacilU and other similar ones. As another hindrance in the coloring of the tuberculous bacilli the temporary character of the coloring must be mentioned. After a shorter or longer time in the preparations enclosed with Canada balsam, the color of the bacilli begins to lose its intensity, very gradually it becomes less noticeable and finally vanishes completely. The preparations colored wi*h methyl-violet and gentian violet pale most quickly, for in some cases the color of such bacilli vanished in two days. The preparations colored with fuchsiue keep much longer, as do those colored with alkaline methyline blue solution. Why it is that the color is so fleetmg, wh'le the same color in the dyeing of other bacteria have proved themselves un- changeable for years, I am not able to say. But from the circumstance, that in a great number of prepared specimens single ones have been found which have preserved the color completely unchanged for almost a year, I must conclude, that some sort of conditions are present and may be found, which will make possible the retaining of the color. Moreover the preparations which are so pale have not become entirely useless, as with little trouble they can be colored again. The Canada balsam must be liquified by heat, the specimen taken off carefully with a pinsel and put into oil of turpentine. After 24 hours it is laid in absolute alcohol and after another 24 hours into the color solution to go through the whole coloring process again. The tu- berculous bacilli take the blue color just as intensely as at first, but their surround- ings, on the contrary, appear less beautifully and clearly colored than before. A reliable explanation of the difference between tuberculous bacilli and other bacteria in their action in regard to coloring matters appears to me impossible for the present, on account of the insufficient knowledge of the more delicate structure of the chemical constitution. On many grounds it seems likely that the tuber- culous bacilli are surrounded by a coating, which acts differently toward coloring matter than the contents, as we already know to be the case with other bacilli. The bacilli dyed with methylme blue appeared thinner than those dyed with methyl violet or fuchsine. One sees in the group : in which the bacilli lie closely pressed together, that the methyl violet colored bacilli move, and the bacilli dyed with methyline blue and appear thin, are separated from each other by plainly manifest spaces. Further, the coloring of the bacilli intensely dyed with methyl violet in growing pale does not vanish uniformly, but an outer layer grows pale first, so that of the thick bacillus a thinner, still intensely thread remains, which possesses about the thickness of the bacillus colored with methyline blue. Finally the firm cleaving together of the bacilli in the groups also speaks for the presence 18 Etiology ov TurBEECtJLOsie. of an enwrapping substance which joins them. It is therefore thinkable, that a coating exists, possessed with special properties, and enwrapping the bacilli, and that this allows the entrance of coloring matters under the simultaneous influence of alkali aniline and similar matters, but is on the contrary more or less impenetrable for acids. But in the face of the facts now known, one cannot go farther than to conjectures. If I now go over to the description of the tuberculous bacilli themselves, although they were first made visible by the help of coloring matters, it appears nevertheless to the point, first to describe their properties as they make themselves known in a living condition and without being influenced by any sort of reagents. To get preparations for this sort of observation, only such tuberculous substances can be used as contain considerable masses of bacilli, because single bacilli cannot be distin- guished with certainty in the masses of detritus without help of the color reac- tion. For this purpose I have used little tuberculous knots from the lungs of guinea pigs, after I had convinced myself by coloring of the great quantity of tuberculous bacilli in them ; the little knots were crushed in a drop of blood serum free from bacteria, the substance spread about as finely as possible in the liquid, a drop of this liquid sufficiently large for microscopic examination spread out flat on the under side of a covering-glass and fastened with vasiline on to a hollow object-holder, in order to avoid disturbing currents in the liquid and a too quick evaporation. In a preparation prepared in this manner, in the microscopic examination conducted in the usual manner, that is to say in a suitable "ab- blendung" of the light by diaphragms, there are found among opaque heaps of in- determinable nuclei, brighter spots in which the formed elements lie less thickly, and here one notices numerous colorless, very fine and short little staffs. The same are mostly united in small groups ; in those which lie singly aside from the so-called molecular motion, no motion of their own is to be noticed. The length of the little staffs is about from one-quarter to one-half of the diameter of a red blood corpuscle. An organization is not be noticed in them, and one cannot re- organize their relations to the surrounding cells in this sort of examination, and if no farther observations could be made, one would rather believe he had some sort of lifeless forms before him than bacteria. If such a covering-glass be lifted up from the concave object-holder, so that > the bacilli-bearing substance be dried and then doubly dyed in the maimer already described, then the numerous grains and remains of cells appear dyed brown, the little staffs on the contrary receive an intense blue coloring and distinguish themselves sharply from all known component parts of the animal tissue with which they are mixed. The bacilli do not show themselves in their full number until after their coloring ; they may be distinguished not only on the thinnest spots of the preparation, but everywhere with full certainty, even among the thick heaps of cells. It is noticeable that the little staffs appear thinner after the coloring than in the uncolored condition, the reason for which is, that be- fore the coloring they must be observed by light cut off by diaphragms, in which case the lines of interference on the borders of the object appear to enlarge its diameter, while the observation of the colored bacilli is made in full light falling upon it from all sides, through which all phenomena of interference are ex- cluded. ETIOLOGY OK T0BEKCU.LOSI8. l9 In like manner one can examine the most various objects by spreading out the substance to be examined as to its contents of tuberculous bacilli on the cov- ering-glass and by coloring the snme. Nevertheless, one does not learn much more than that the bacilli are present in a tissue or in a liquid and in what quan- tity they are present. Their position and their relations to the surrounding tis- sues cannot, in this way at least, be determined. The examination on the cover- ing-glass is therefore sufficient for liquids, but for tissues can only have a pre- liminary, provisional character. Only the examination of the prepared sections of hardened parts can give reliable information as to the presence and diffusion of bacilli in the tuberculously altered organs. To find out whether bacilli are regular accompaniments of tuberculosis, I have examined as extensive a ground as possible. Materials for this investigation I have received for the most part from Dr. Friedlaender, who, at my request, and in the most gbliging manner, made the rich material of the city hospital in Friedrichs- ham accessible to me, and from the director of the city hospital in Moabit, Dr. Guttman, who committed to my charge a number of cases of tuberculosis for ex- amination. It is a pleasant duty in this place to thanli both gentlemen for the help they have given to my work. In the following description of the results gained in these investigations I must, in order to make a general survey, omit the historical enumeration of the single cases in the order in which accident placed them in my hand, and will speak of them as grouped according to the usual anatomic points of view. Before I turn to this, however, I must make a few general remarks. When a little tuberculous knot is examined in prepared sections, without the use of nucleus-coloriag, and without the diffused light of Abbe's illuminating apparatus, it appears like a body formed of cellular elements thickly crowded together and therefore only slightly transparent. As soon as the little tuberculous knot becomes caseous in the centre the cells change into a more or less fine grained, almost opaque mass, in which fine details are not to be distinguished. But a thoroughly different image of the tubercle is gained when the prepared sections are laid into strongly refractive media and the examination is undertaken after tlie nucleus-coloring, and by dif- fused illumination. The youngest tuberculous knots then show themselves to consist of colored grains heaped together. Nevertheless the grains are not so closely packed but that a section of ordinary thickness appears transparent enough to make it possible to distinguish the most delicate form elements occurring in the space between the grains. The caseous centres of the tuberculous knots in the prepared section appear wholly changed ; they appear almost uncolored and com- pletely transparent because there the cells have died and take no coloring ; only here and there in thrai are f ovmd the remains of nuclei going to pieces, in the form of colored grain groups which, to be sure, are pretty closely pressed together but still allow all single form elements to be distinguished. Larger caseous herds conduct themselves in the same manner. The caseous substance itself has become completely transparent by the treatment and shows only a light greyish-yellow color tone interrupted by single brown grains or groups of grains. Every single tuberculous bacillus- can be distinguished with ease. The conceptions of the mi- croscopic image of the tubercle and of the tuberculously altered tissue which usually obtain are to be modified according to the circumstances just described when the 20 JETIOLOG-Y OF TUBEECULOSIS. examination of the pictorial reproduction of prepared specimens witli nucleus- coloring and illuminated by difEused light is concerned. As to the qualities of tuberculous bacilli in general, as they manifest themselves in the colored condition, the following is still to be mentioned. They always appear in the form of little staves whose length, as has already been given in the description of uncolored bacilli, is equal to ^— J of the diameter of a red blood corpuscle (about 0,0015—0,0035 mm). The diameter of the thick- ness is as constant as the length of the bacilli is variable, provided that one and the same coloring method is used. Under the coloring method first used by me, with alkaline methyline blue solution, they appear considerably thinner than with the use of Ehrlich's method. It is difficult to fix the slight size relations about which we are here concerned without the use of photography. When I look through a considerable number of my bacteria photographs for bacilli which cor- respond best as to size with tuberculous bacilli, I find in F. Cohn's " Beitrage zur Biologic der Pflanzeu ," II Vol., 3 Book, in the photographs given in Plate 15, No 1, among club-shaped bacilli with spores fixed in their ends, very thin and small bacilli which, if magnified 700 instead of 500 times as in the photograph, would come nearest to the tuberculous bacilli. There are among these bacilli also some which are spore-bearing and which about give a representation of the spore-bear- ing bacilli to be mentioned later. Also in the bacilli taken from blood putrefaction In mice (Miiuse septiciimie) and shown in this work, Vol. I, Plate VII, Fig. 41, are bacilli almost as thick, but on the average somewhat shorter than tuberculous bacilli. The tuberculous are usually not completely straight little staves ; one usually finds slight breaks or bends and sometimes a crookedness which in the longest specimens goes so far as to suggest screwshaped windings. By this varying from the straight-lined forms the tuberculous bacilli distinguish themselves from other bacteria which come noticeably near them in size relations according to the photo- graphs. The distribution of the bacilli in the tuberculously-altered tissue is a very varying one. Sometimes they are heaped together in dense masses, so that by a very slight magnifying power bacilli-bearing spots can be recognized by their blue color. Very frequently, however, they are present only in small numbers. One finds the bacilli with most certainty where the tuberculous process is just beginning or is m a state of rapid growth. Here they are to be found in moderate numbers and between the nuclei of the cells which are heaped together and which usually show the epithelioid character at an early stage. After a more careful observation it is manifest that a bacillus almost always lies close beside a nucleus, and that It is to be found in the interior of the cell belonging to this nucleus. One cell can often contain two or even three bacilli. In places where the disease has made greater progress the number of bacilli usually increases extraordinarily. They then often group themselves into little heaps closely pressed together, in which the bacilli lie parallel and are connected, so closely that it is often difficult to recognize thefact that the group is composed of single bacilli. In this arrangement thetuber- culous bacill i bear a great resemblance to the lepra bacilli , which are mostly grouped in this manner. The relation of the tuberculous bacilli to the cells cannot be de- cided in this stage, because the cells have already experienced groat changes and jrnOLOGV OF TUBERC0LOBIS. 21 are in process of dying. Tlieir nuclei begin to decompose and to change themselves into irregularly formed grains of very varying size. Gradually these become scarcer and there remains a uniform mass which will not take nucleus coloring and in which all the cells originally present have died. This mass forms what was formerly considered the essential part of the tubercle, as the bearer of the infectious material, namely, the caseous centre of the same. But, as a rule, this caseous substance is very poor in tuberculous bacilli. Only when the death of the cells and their change into the nucleusless caseous mass has taken place very quickly are the bacilli visible for a time in considerable numbers. It is plain that they retain the capacity of fixing the coloring matter longer than the cells perish- ing under their influence. But very soon the bacilli themselves undergo farther changes, either dying or go into the stage of spore formation, in which they gradu- ally lose their power of taking color. In the last case only their spores remain in the caseous substance, and as until now no means have been found of coloring the spores of tuberculi m any way whatever, their presence after the vanishing of the tuberculi betrays .tself only by the infectious qualities of the caseous substance in which they are imbedded. On account of the importance, formerly and even very lately, erroneously attached to the caseous products of the tuberculous process, it may not be superfluous emphatically to direct attention to the facts that in all tuberculous affections the tuberculi appear first, collections of cells joining them- selves to these ; and that the dying of these cells and the caseous change resulting from this are secondary processes.* The opinion which still, to a great extent, holds ground that the relation between the bacilli and the caseous degeneration is the opposite of this, that the becoming caseous represent the primary, and that by means of this a suita- ble breeding ground is prepared for the tuberculous bacilli, is therefore com- pletely erroneous. For the anatomical comprehension of the tissue changes in consequence of tuberculosis the process of becoming caseous may be of interest, but for the aetiology of tuberculosis it has not the slightest importance. If I have lately been charged with paying too little attention to the process of caseous degeneration in my account of the aetiology of tuberculosis, the charge is unfounded, for it rests upon a misunderstanding of my standpoint, since I have only treated the etiological relations of tuberculosis, but have left the pathological details to the pathological anatomists, especially when they lie so far aside from aetiology as the caseous changes of the tuberculous tissue. Of greater importance for the questions interesting us here are the relations of tuberculous bacilli to the gigantic cells so frequently appearing in tubercu- lously altered tissues. These peculiar formations are so frequent in tuberculous tissues that it was for a time believed that they must be considered as characteristic of tuberculosis. Since the gigantic cells are almost always situated at the centre of the little tuber- culous knot, the opinion has often been expressed that the tuberculous virus must be contained in their interior — has indeed been pointed out in the shape of very small grains. * Baumgarten, " TJeber die Wege der tuberkWosen'Inf action. " Zeitsohrift £. klin. Med. Bd. VI, heft. I. 22 J5TIOLOGT OF TUBEECUL0ST8. It has now been shown to be certain that the gigantic cells occur in other disease processes and are not specific products of tuberculosis. Nevertheless the conviction that the infectious material must be contained in the gigantic cells has proved itself correct. For as soon as gigantic cells appear in the tubercles, tuber- culous bacilli are almost regularly found in them, and the relation of bacilli to gigantic cells is a manifold one. In all slowly developing tuberculous processes, for example scrofula, spongy inflammation of the joints, etc., in which the bacilli are present only in scanty numbers, we find the bacilli almost exclusively in gigantic cells, and then always only one or at most a few specimens in each cell. But when, corresponding with the more or less intensive course of the process, the bacilli appear in considerable numbers, then the gigantic cells which may be present are more generously sup- plied with them, and the number of bacilli enclosed by a gigantic cell may reach fifty or more. A single bacillus in the interior of a gigantic cell is sometimes not easily rec- ognized, for it often happens that the little staff may not be in the horizontal plane of the prepared section, but is placed diagonally or perpendicularly, and then appears in the microscopic image not as a blue line but only as a point, which can only be traced to a certain distance and its staff form recognized by raising and lowering the tube. Since the contents of the giant cell take a more or less brown-color tone, the little staff does not always show itself In the characteristic blue, but in a darker, almost black color, the reason being that ani- line brown absorbs the blue part of the spectrum, and therefore a blue object observed through a brown solution, must appear black. Attention should, by this opportunity, be given to the fact that bacilli never look blue but always black when the ground on which they are seen is brown, when, for example brown- colored nuclei lie under them. Although, as already said, it may sometimes be diflBcult to find a single bacil- lus in a gigantic cell, bacilli which in considerable masses fill a giant cell give a so much the more striking picture, which cannot be overlooked, even by a weak magnifying power. In this case the giant cells appear like little blue circles which are surrounded by a brown wall, the nuclei of the giant cell. The arrangement of the bacilli in the giant cells often takes a very peculiar form. When the nuclei of the giant cell form a closed ring, and, for example, only one bacillus is found within it, the same generally lies in the centre or at least only a little excentric. The nuclei of the giant cell are often forced toward one end, that is in a uni- polaric arrangement, especially if the cell possesses an oval figure, or one even longer in proportion to its width. In this case the bacillus is usually found in the part of the cell free from nuclei ; it often takes a position exactly opposite to them, and lies in the extreme point of the nucleus free pole. In the observation of the giant cells the supposition involuntari'y forces itself upon one that a sort of antagonism exists between the nuclei of the giant cell and the parasite enclosed by it, which effects the greatest possible distance between the nuclei and the bacilli. This remarkable opposition between nuclei and bacilli is most noticeable in those giant cells whose nuclei are grouped equatorially and which then a bacillus in each of the nucleus, free poles, or by a bipolar arrangement of the ^riOLOGY OF T0BEBCULOSIS. 23 nuclei In ■which, each heap of nuclei holds a bacillus as it were in check. Also ■where larger numbers of bacilli are observed in giant cells the opposi- tional grouping of nuclei and bacilli can be noticed. Usually, however, an entirely different arrangement of bacilli occurs. It looks as if ■with increasing numbers the behavior of the bacilli towards the nuclei became more active. They force themselves, namely, more and more towards the periphery of the cell, squeeze themselves between- the nuclei and finally break through the wall of the nuclei. During this process it is very worthy of notice that the bacilli, in this case, regularly place themselves with their axis perpendicular to the surface of the giant cell, so that in a microscopic image if the upper curvature or the base of the gigantic cell be shown, they appear as points ; when, on the contrary, the greatest diameter of the cell is show, we get the image of a circle of rays formed of blue staffs. Such a great increase in tlie number of bacilli appears regularly to be fol- lowed by the destruction of tlie giant cell ; for in the neighborhood of giant cells supplied with radiately arranged bacilli, especially towards the interior of the ' tuberculous herds, one often finds groups of bacilli which show the radiate arrangement, but are no longer enclosed by brown-colored nuclei. Moreover, since many transitional forms are found, it cannot be doubted that such radiated groups of bacilli mark places in which giant cells were formerly found whose nuclei have vanished, and of whose contents only the bacilli remain. By the help of the microscopic images just described one can read about the following conception of the relations of bacilli to tlie cell contents of the tubercle without losing oneself in too venturesome hypotheses. The first stage in the development of the tubercle is the appearance of one or more bacilli in the interior of cells which bear an epithelioid character. How the bacilli get there can scarcely be explained, otherwise than that they are taken up from already existing tuberculous herds and carried along by such tissue elements as possess motion of their own, that is to say, by wandering cells, be they in the blood, the lymph, or in the tissue itself, for the bacilli possess no motion of their own. Only so is the peculiar fact to be explained that frequently single bacilli or little groups of the same are found dispersed at quite uniform and comparatively great distances from each other, as, for example, in scrophulosis, fungous and lupous tissues and in general in all chronic tuberculous affections. For a wandering cell which has taken up a bacillus takes therewith no such harmless burden as if it swallowed a grain of cinnabar, a particle of coal or other indifferent material. Laden with ihe latter it can still go oyer much ground, but under the deleteiious influence of the bacillus changes occur in the wandering cell which soon bring it to a standstill. Whether the wandering cell perishes, and the bacilli are taken up by other cells present at the spot, which last then talce an epithelioidal charac- ter ; or, as appears to me more probable after my investigations, the wandering cell transporting the bacillus itself changes into an epithelioid cell and after that into a giant cell must be decided by studies directed to that special point. For the assumption that the bacilli are originally carried along by wandering cells, and that their dispersion in the tissue depends upon this, the following rea- sons can be given : In the first place I would like to bring to remembrance an 24 ^TIOLOGi' OF TUBKKCULOSIB. analogous process in which also staff-shaped , acteria are iDCorporatcd by Ihe col- orless cells of the blood. This case is the putrefaction of the blood in mice (M!iuse-septicamie) described by me in the "Investigations of the JStiologyof Infectious Diseases." In this disease bacilli very similar to the tuberculous bacilli are to be found in the interior of the white blood corpuscles, and at first there are only one or two specimens close to the nucleus ; then they increase very rapidly in the cell, destroying the nucleus and finally bursting the cell in order, having become free, to be again taken up by other cells and to prepare for them a rapid ruin, so that in a short time the majority of the white blood corpuscles are found inhabited by bacilli. The tuberculous bacilli grow, as we shall see later, very much more slowly than the bacilli of septictlmie (putre. of bloodj, and the cells laden with them can therefore manifest vital functions very much longer. The further course of both diseases is, in accordance with this fact, very different, in spite of the fact that the first beginnings of the bacteria invasion possess such great simi- larity. Direct observation also speaks in favor of the assumption that tuberculous bacilli are first seized and transported by the wandering cells. This can best be recognized in the cases in which considerable numbers of bacilli are introduced directly into the course of the blood, for example, by injection into the ear veins of the rabbit. If an animal infected in this manner be soon killed, one still finds in the blood numerous white blood corpuscles which enclose one or more tuber- culous bacilli, and moreover in the tissue itself of the lung, liver and spleen, genuine round cells appear which are provided with a simple or divided nucleus, still possess no epithelioid form, therefore exactly resemble the colorless blood cells and yet contain'uberculous bacilli. Another explanation of this, other than that they are wandering cells which took up the bacilli in the course of the blood and transported them into the neighboring tissue, will scarcely be found Also in the case of guinea pigs into whose bauchhohle (belly cavity) considerable num- bers of tuberculous bacilli were injected, and which died in the course of the first week, the same appearances were found. A third ground for this assumption appears to me to lie in the fact that in dead tissues, in such places, therefore, wherein the influence of the living cells upon the bacilli is completely excluded, when a lively growth of the bacilli takes place, they arrange themselves in typically formed groups which resemble the peculiar forms of the bacteria colonies in reinculturen of the same on blood serum. Wo must therefore consider these funis to be those taken by tuberculous bacilli when developing undisturbed mil when their grouping is decided only by the variations and changes of p! i- ■ c <:: '.itioned by their growth. Every other arrangement is to be looked upi n r-t r^ wnrkingof some sort of disturbance, for example, that caused by curn;:/-i ill' u liquids, or by the direct influence of movable tissue elements. So t'n! i 1 itiv(! ]> sitions of the bacilli in the giant cells, especially their position as o;ipocd I') t' e nucleus, and the radiating ar- rangement appear to me to be eoiitr.iionrd upon currents in the plasma of the cell, and not by motion belong!: g to the bacilli themselves, since the bacilli after the death of the cells do nrt change the radiating arrangement once taken. After the wandering cell which transported the bacillus has changed itself into an epithelioid cell and given up moving from place to place, the path- ^TI0r,0GY Olf TDBEEOULOSIS. 2S ogenic influence of the bacilli prepares to spread itself out upon the neighbor! iug cells existing within a certain circuit. Whether they have proceeded from cells already present in this place in consequence of the attraction exercised by the bacillus itself, or rather by the materials produced by it and diffused into the surroundings, all cells situated within a definite region change into epithelioid cells. The cell containing the bacillus suffers still greater changes. It grows constantly larger, while at the same time the nuclei constantly increase, and it finally attains the shape and size of the familiar giint cells. That the develop- ment of the giant cells really goes on in this manner can be seen from suitably prepared sections, which show all stages of development from simple epithelioid cells with one bacillus to the completely developed giant cell with many nuclei and many bacilli. As most suitable for the study of the development of giant cells I should consider the tuberculous tissue of cattle and horses, which is espec- ially rich in giant cells and in which I have often seen the above mentioned transitional forms. The furtlier fate of the giant cells is a varied one, according as the progress of the disease is rapid or slow. In the last case the number of bacilli enclosed by a giant cell is always a limited one. Osually there are only one or two. It is indeed scarcely to be thought that the bacillus found in a large giant cell is the same which caused the formation of the cell. One finds not in- frequently in a giant cell a bacillus which is no longer so intensely colored as other bacilli in neighboring gigantic cells ; I have also seen cases in which the giant cell contains a dark and strongly colored bacillus, and beside it a second, very pale one, which without careful attention would be overlooked. Further- more I have sometimes found spore-bearing bacilli in the interior of giant cells. From all this I conclude that the giant cell is quite a durable formation, that the bacilli, on the contrary, do not possess such duration of life, and that they can only maintain themselves for a considerable time in giant cells, in that a new gen- eration follows a dying one. Sometimes they form spores in the interior of the giant cells, and in this case leave behind them the germs of a later generation. But often enough the vegetation of the bacilli in the cell appears to die out and the empty cell then remains as a monument of their former presence. When one, as is often the case in a tuberculous tissue, finds quite numerous giant cells, and among them only comparatively few supplied with bacilli, one can then take for granted that many of the apparently empty gigantic cells contain spores of tnberculous bacilli; others, on the contrary, mark the places of former vegetations of bacilli, and one is tempted to institute a comparison with a volcanic region in which occur not only single active volcanoes, but a great number slumbering for a time, or completely extinct, these latter nevertheless bearing unmistakable marks of their former activity. As to the fate of giant cells when the bacilli in them increases rapidly, we have already spoken. In this case the result is exactly opposed to the one just described ; the giant cell is the conquered party; it is, as it were, burst by the tu- berculous bacilli forcing themselves through the wall of nuclei. Its nuclei perish, dissolve themselves into little grains, and the cell perishes. How it is that at one time the bacilli are conquered, or for a long time re- main confined to definite spots and barely hold their own, that at another time their number increases rapidly and all cell elements in their neighborhood quickly 2C JiTIOLOGY OF TUBKECtTLOSIS perish, only suppositions can be made, -which cannot here be entered upon, but which I will discuss later. The further changes which complete themselves in tuberculous tissue after the formation of the epithelioid and giant cells are all of a regressive nature. For the greater part they belong in the sphere of the processes described by Wei- gert as necrosis of coagulation, and lead to the death or the tuberculously diseased tissue and to the formation of the so-called caseous masses which so frequently form the interior of the tuberculous herds. The tuberculous bacilli usually van- ish very quickly in the caseous masses, so that they are only to be met in young- er herds, and are almost always wanting in older ones. In other cases after the vanishing of the bacilli vegetation, the tuberculous tissue may simply shrink and be changed into firm cellular tissue. A very important property of the tuberculous bacilli must be mentioned here. It is the spore-forming property. As is well known, F. Cohn was the first to observe in the so-called hay-bacilli the appearance of shining little bodies which remained when the bacilli perished, had the power of germinating and growing to bacilli, and were to be considered the fruit form of the bacilli, receiving hence from F. Cohn the name of spores. The appearance of the spore formation as it shows itself microscopically in bacilli tinged with aniline colors, is to be seen in a very instructive manner on photograph No. 76, Plate 13, in the first volume of these communications. The bacilli appear there with short joints, and mostly consisting of two joints. Some of these joints are evenly dark colored and still resemble completely the spore- free bacilli on photograph 75. In many joints one notices, nevertheless, the appearance of a light point which increases in size gradually, while the oJored contents of the joint withdraw more and more to the two ends, and the sides are bordered by fine lines marking the outhnes of the joint. The bright space in the interior of the bacillus joint is the spore which in tliis specimen shows itself not by its brilliancy, since it is imbedded in a strongly light-refracting substance, but only by the absence of coloring material. With few exceptions the bacilli spores do not take the aniline coloring. The division into the articulation does not always appear so sharply defined as in the bacilli of this picture. In many sorts of bacilli, as for example in those belonging to inflamma- tion-of-the-spleen, the members appear closely joined together and form a con- tinuous tliread which contains the uncolorcd spores at regular intervals. The spore formation of the tuberculous bacilli conducts itself in like fashion. The bacillus preserves its connection and does not fall apart into separate joints, but a bright body appears in every joint so that the bacillus after coloring resembles a little dark thread interrupted by bright egg-shaped spaces. By the use of the strongest systems and great magnifying power it may then be shown that the spore-bearing tuberculous bacillus presents exactly the same appearance as the spore-bearing bacilli of inflammation-of-the-splcen, only in greatly diminished proportions. The spores are egg-shaped, bounded by a delicaie colored line, and are present usually in the number of two to six in one bacillus. Since every sin- gle spore takes possession of one joint, from their numbers we can decide upon the number of the joints of the bacillus, that is to say of the single elements out ETIOLOGY OF TUBEECULOBIS. 2Y of ■which the same is formed. If a substance containing spore-bearing tubercu- lous bacilli be examined in the uncolored condition and in less strongly refractive liquids, the bacilli appear to be provided with brilliantly shining little bodies; these last can therefore not be vacuoles or simple gaps in the protoplasm of the bacillus, but must be genuine spores. After these remarks as to the universal qualities of tuberculous bacilli, I now turn to the description of their action in the various tuberculous processes. A. TUBERCULOSIS IN MAN. I. — Miliary Tubekculosis. Nineteen cases in all vyere examined in which the tubercles were found in the form of miliary and sub-miliary little grey knots, mostly provided with a whitish or weak yellowish centre, scattered in several organs, lungs, brain, liver, spleen and kidneys. The bacilli were wanting in the tuberculous knots in no one of these cases. The smaller and younger the knots were, so much the more plentiful were the bacilli, and they were thickest at the centre. As soon as the middle of the little knot will no longer take nucleus coloring, as soon, therefore, as the caseous degeneration begins, the number of bacilli de- creases immediately. In the larger knots, whose centres had already experienced a far-reaching caseous change, few bacilli were to be found, and those only to be found between the nuclei of the epithelioid cells occurring in the periphery of the knot. Now and then one finds in the giant cells occurring on the border of the caseous herd, single bacilli or groups of the same. A noticeable fea- ture which re-appears in the chronic processes of the lungs is this, that most giant cells contain black pigment grains beside which the bacilli are still easily to be distinguished. In other organs I have not seen such pigment-bearing giant cells, and their presence appears to be limited to tlie lungs. From the analogy of other results obtained from the lungs of swine and olh( r animals, to be mentioned later, I might suppose that we here have before us giant cells which originally developed in the interior of an alveolus and took into themselves the pigment of the perishing cells present in the alveolus. Tliis view is taken by Watson Cheyne on the ground of direct observations of giant cells which were found in alveoli of the human lung. (See Practitioner, April, 18S3). These cells, which first developed in the alveoli next to the little knots, are after- wards taken up by them as the knots extend. In many of the older knots the bacilli appear to have vanished completely. Nevertheless, we must remember that the prepared sections of the larger tubercles always contain only fragmtntp, and that if the bacilli are wanting their absence from the whole knot is not there- by proved. The relations here are similar to those formerly described in regard to the giant cells, that is to say, that beside those knots which still contain abun- dant bacilli others occur in which the bacilli have eithei entirely vanished or have left spores behind them. Nevertheless, if a sufficient number of sections are examined, one almost always finds spots rich in bacilli, and it would not be right from the results of a few specimens to give a judgment as to the presence or absence of bacilli in miliary tubercles. In miliary tuberculosis of the liver and sple( n, I have seen bacilli almost ex- clusively in the giant cells. Especially in the spleen, beside completely developed 28 ETIOLOGY OF TUBKKCULOSIS. tubercles, there are often found giant cells of considerable size, which are almost isolated or only surrounded by a few epithelioid cells, and are regularly the seat of one to three tuberculous bacilli. The tubercles of the membrane of the brain were, almost -without exception, rich in tuberculous bacilli. Frequently the latter are found in the immediate neighborhood of small arteries beside which are spindle-formed heaps of epithe- lioid cells ; between the latter the bacilli are strewn in quite unifcrm numbers. But in many places the bacilli are present in such thick masses that their presence makes itself known, under a weak magnifying power through the blue color of the parts in question. In this case they are principally round cells, therefore younger cell formations, among which the bacilli vegetation has its seat. Sometimes aho I have seen bacilli in the interior of the vasa. Of miliary tubercles of the choroidee ouly one case was at my disposal, and that I owe to Prof. Weigert. Here also were formed herds without nuclei, (that is to say already developed caseous degeneration), which were surrounded by large giant cells, and many epithelioid cells. Partly in the giant cells, but also partly outside of them, between the epithelioid cells, a good many tuberculous bacilli were present. With the exception of one case, comparatively old caseous herds were always to be found, especially in the lungs and bronchial glands. Also in these herds, which may be considerd the point of departure for miliary tuberculosis, the pres- ence of bacilli were proved in tue cases which were examined with reference to them. Often, to be sure, they were only found sparsely in the periphery of the herd, but sometimes one discovered nests of dense masses of ba'-illi. It would lead too far if I should here describe particularly all the cases of miliary tuberculosis which I have examined, and I select, therefore, only some of the most characteristic. 1. — Workman, thirty-six years old. Strong man, who had not felt unwell un- til fourteen days before being taken to the hospital, attacked with coughing; pains in the chest and moderate fever. The symptoms observed in the hospital were only slightly characteristic, and corresponded with those of catarrhal pneu- monia. Under increase of dyspnce the patient's powers sank rapidly and he died four days after his reception into the hospital. In the journal of dissection the following is worthy of mention. The pleura on both sides occupied by numer- ous little miliary knots. Both lungs infiltrated, greyish-red, and many lit'le miliary grey knots present ; the larger knots show caseous degeneration. In the conns arteriosus of the heart several sub-miliary grey knots of the endocard. On the closing border of the mitralis eruption of firm knots varying from miliary to the size of a pea. In the liver not very numerous little knots. Both kidneys contain grey little miliary knots in the pithy substance as well as in the outer coating in abundance. The hollow of the right kidney dilated, and in the same two defecti with indented borders and caseous base whose diameter is about IJ to 3 cm. A caseous deposit of the size of a hazel nut in one papilla. Bladder free from tubercles. In the prostata some caseous deposits. In the urethra abundant little miliary knots. Caseous degeneration of the accessory testicles, partly with caseous softening, drawn in scars on the scrotum. In the testicles themselves abundant deposits of little grey miliary knots. The thoracic duct iETIOLOGY OF TUBERCTIL0SI8. 29 dilated, on several spots on its wall caseous thickening, and on the inner surface of the same some defecli provided -with caseous base. Here we Lad a case of chronic tuberculosis of the uro-genital organs. The tuberculosis of the thoracic duct connected itself with this and had as a conse- quence, the breaking out of the general miliary tuberculosis. This case according to its origin belongs to the form of miliary tuberculosis described by Ponfick and forms a typical example of the same. The microscopic returns corresponded ex- actly with the description of the action of the bacilli as previously sketched. The tubercles in the lung tissue showed themselves comparatively small, and for the most part contained bacilli in abundance. Some contained so many that under a weak magnifying power a bluish color showed itself in the middle. Many gigantic cells were also found in the tubercles of the liver and spleen, which for the most part were supplied with bacilli. Very numerous bacilli were present on the edge and in the surroundings of the herd in the papilla of the kid- neys. At single points in the surroundings of this herd, the bacilli had collected in groups in the urethra, and the peculiar grouping here manifest suggested the figures which they take in blood serum culturen, and which ai'e to be mentioned later. Whether the bacilli in this case reached the urethra via the course of the blood or whether they spread from the neighboring tissue, could not be decided. In another tuberculous kidney which I received from Prof. Weigert, numerous glomeruli and the neighboring urethra were covered with masses of bacilli, which leads us to conclude that the bacilli can make their way from the course of the blood into the urethra and from there perhaps into the urine. 2. — A second case of tuberculosis of the thoracic duct in a man forty-eight years old shows an analogous behavior. The tuberculous process had been here spread from the caseous mediastinal glands to the thoracic duct, and has brought about miliary tuberculosis of the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys. Death fol- lowed later than in the first case ; the tuberculous eruption was not so abundant, the single knots reached a greater size, were more caseous and contained a cor- respondingly smaller number of bacilli. S.^Nine year old boy. Said to have been takensick only a few days before his admission into the hospital. At his entrance into the hospital diseased senso- rium, great restlessness and delirium with high fever. In the following days bronchial phenoifiena showed themselves, death ten days later. Dissection showed : caseous swellmg of the bronchial glands ; broncho-pneumonia herds in both lower lobes of the lung. Besides these, numerous grey miliary and sub- miliary tubercles in the lungs, in the enlarged spleen, in the liver and in the kid- neys. At the base of the brain, and in the surrounding of the vessels a slight muddincss (triibung) and a great number of little grey knots. In the tubercles of the lungs, liver and kidneys aud spleen, bacilli were found in varying abtmdance. The tubercles of the pia mater were very abundantly supplied with them. In the caseous bronchial glands belonging to this case, large quantities of bacilli were found, and not only on the borders of the caseous herd, but forcing themselves far into it. The parts of the gland tissue which were not yet necro- tized contained numerous gigantic cells which were noticeable for the multitude of enclosed tuberculous bacilli, and for the radiate arrangement of the same. 30 ETIOLOGY OF TUBEECtiLOSIS. Plainly the tuberculous process in tlie Lroncliial glands had only lately began and had spread rapidly. The gland tissue had become very quickly necrotized and softened under t„e influence of the tuberculous bacilli. Somewhere there must have been a breaking through into a vasalumen (gefiisslumen) and so con- siderable numbers of bacilli have got into the course of the blood to have caused the general eruption of miliary tubercles. The location of this breach was, however, not to be found in this case. That the same is not always easy to find may be seen from the following case. 4. — A strong man of about thirty years died after a sickness which showed typhoid symptoms and had not lasted longer than three weeks. From the dissec- tion it appeared that there were very many grey little miliary knots in the lungs, liver and kidneys, as well as in the greatly enlarged spleen. The bronchial glands were swollen, of a marrow-like nature, but not caseous. Also, moreover, no older caseous herd could be proved, in spite of the most thorough investiga- tion, so that one was loth to make a diagnosis of miliary tuberculosis. The in- testines and mesenterial glands were not changed. Microscopic investigation gave the following very noteworthy result : Sec- tions from the bronchial glands showed wide-spread spots bare of nuclei, and which were only filled with black pigment grains, and numerous fragments of perished nuclei, together with dense swarms of tuberculous bacilli. These last were heaped together in such masses in the immediate neighborhood of little arteries that the vasalumen (gefasslumen) appeared to be surrounded by a blue court, even under a slight magnifying power. A greater magnifying power showed these blue masses to be composed of bacilli. In single places the bacilli forced themselves even into the interior of the vasa, and there could be no doubt, therefore, that they found their way into the blood in this manner, and were transported in all directions in great quantity. A third method was thereby sought by which a general tuberculous infection and the miliary tu- berculosis conditioned upon it could take place, after Ponflck had succeeded in discovering one of these ways in the thoracic duct, and after Weigert had taught the second, and to all appearance by far the most frequent, in the breaking through of tuberculous masses into the veins. The miliary tubercles of the spleen and lungs contained a good many bacilli, partly also in the giant cells. But this case was of great interest in another way. It appeared, namely, that numerous capillaries were filled for short distances with micrococci. Under the double coloring treatment, the tuberculous bacilli took, as they always do, the blue coloring, the micrococci, on the contrary, the brown color. In many places in the same field of vision, and at slight distances from each other, brown colored micrococci and blue colored bacilli were to be seen. The capillary mi crococci embolism were moreover very numerous in the lungs, and especially in the spleen. They had not as yet led to striking changes in their surroundings, such as heaping together of nuclei or necrosis, and must therefore have appeared not many days before death. The combination of a bacilli and a micrococci in- vasion as it occurred here, belongs to the mixed infections whose appearance seems not to be rare. Such mixed infections can be generated artificially in ani- mals by simultaneous or closely following inoculation with various infeclioua .arrioLOGY of tobeectjlosis. 31 materials, for example, by using inflainmation-of-the-spleen and scepticsemic bacilli in the case of mice. Also tuberculosis and inflammation-of-lhe-fpleen can exist simultaneously in the same animal. I have inoculated a number of guinea pigs -which were tuberculous to a great degree with inflammation-of-the-spleen bacilli. In consequence of this, the animals were attacked with inflammation cf the spleen and died. Several of them had very large numbers of tuberculous bacilli in the lungs and spleen, and in sections from these, by double colorinf, the tuberculous bacilli took the blue,. and the very numerous inflammation-of-thu spleen bacilli took the brown color. As a further instance of a spontaneous!}' arising mixed infection, the occurrence at micrococci herds in typhus is to be nr- ticfd. Further, Brieger and Ehrlich* have drawn attention to a combination of typhus with malignant cedema, in which case the very fitting expression mixed infection was first used. It is therefore plain that we have such a mixed infection in the case here spoken of. The tuberculous disease of the bronchial glands formed the primary infection, which, in consequence of the rapid growth of the bacilli and their forcing themselves into the arteries, led to general miliary tuber- culosis. Not until this disease was well established, the strength of the organism had been very much lowered, and therewith probably the ground for the micro- cocci invasion had been prepared, did the latter follow ; proceeding to all appear- ance from an ulcerated defekt (imperfection) on the tongue, and causing in connection with the miliary tuberculosis, death so much the more quickly. A similar combination of tuberculous bacilli in the miliary tubercles of the lungs, and micrococci in the neighboring vessels, has been observed by Watson Cheyne, t and it may therefore probably be accepted that with a little attention this sort of mixed infection might be not infrequently found. Of the other case of miliary tuberculosis coming under examination, the fol- owing may be briefly sketched : 5. — Boy of eight years. Caseous bronchial tubes, numerous miliary tuber- cles in the lungs, spleen, liver and kidneys. The little knots of the lungs were thoroughly provided with large nuoleusless caseous centres, and on the circum- ferential parts of the same, single little groups of bacilli were to be found. Tu- berculous bacilli could also be proved in some giant cells on the border of the caseous centers. Bacilli-bearing giant cells were also to be found In the spleen. In this case I did not succeed in finding bacilli in the little knots of the liver and kidneys. On the contrary they were abundantly present in little nests in the bronchial glands. 6. — A strongly built and vigorous man, thirty-four years old, had suffered from a cough for about three weeks before his entrance into the hospital. Quite high fever and broncho-pneumonia symptoms, cerebral phenomena soon ap- peared, and by means of the opthalmoscope, tuberculosis of the choroidea could be clearly shown. Death followed fourteen days after entrance to the hospital. Caseous confluent herds in the tips of both lungs, quite large, not very thickly sown miliary tubercles in the lungs, spleen and liver, bronchial glands caseous In the little knots of the lungs tuberculous bacilli found singly in the periphery. • Berl. kiln. Wochensohrift 1882. No. 44. tTlie Practitioner, Vol. XXX. No. 4, Apr., 1883, p. 295. g2 JETIOLOGY OF TTjBEECULOSlS. Liver and spleen contained giant cells, among them some with bacilli. In the broncliial glands also, small groups of bacilli could be shown only in a few ^pols. 7.— Baker's apprentice, seventeen years old, anaemic, of a delicate build, had coughed for half a year, was taken into the hospital with a pleuritic exudation from the right side. Puncturing the thorax brought out 500 ccm. of clear serous liquid. Four weeks later cerebral symptoms appeared, and after another two weeks death followed. Dissection showed tuberculous pleurisy, miliary tubercu- losis of the lungs and tuberculous meningitis.. In the little knots of the lungs, as also in those of the Dia mater, tuberculous bacilli were found and in some places very abundantly. 8,— Six-year-old girl. Bronchial glands and partly verkalkt (ossified.) Sin- gle lobuliirc (lobular, lobe-shaped ? ) red, hepatized herds in the lungs, within which the bronchia3 were supplied with purulent contents. At the base of the brain muddy "sulzig" infiltrations of the pia. Numerous miliary and sub-mil- iary knots in the vessels of the fossa Sylvii. Microscopic examination shewed tuberculous bacilli im small numbers in scattered spots in the bronchial glands. In the hepatized parts of the lung the alveoli were found filled with bacteria of va- rious sorts, (aspirations pneumonia). The meningeal tubercles were very abun- dantly supplied with tuberculous bacilli. 9. — Workman thirty-four years of age, drunkard, treated two years before on account of scrofula of the wrist bones. Complication with "lymphangitischen" (pertaining to inflammation of the lymph vessels) abscesses on the upper part of the left foot and upper part of the thigh. Death, with cerebral symptoms, after seven weeks' stay in the hospital. The dissection showed caseous infiltration with formation of cavities in the tips of both lungs, miliary tubercles in both lungs and at the base of the brain. Quite numerous tuberculous bacilli were found in the tubercles of the lungs as well as in the meningeal tubercles. 10. — Five year old boy. Wide-spread caseous degeneration of the bronchial glands. In the tip of the left lung a caseous herd larger than a hazel nut, with the centre in a state of disorganization. A moderate number of comparatively large miliary tubercles in the lungs. Quite numerous grey and yellowish little caseous knots in liver, spleen and kidneys. The pia mater of the basis of the brain greyish, yellow "sulzig" infiltrated. Under microscopic investigation nu- merous tuberculous bacilli were found, partly enclosed by giant cells, in the bronchial glands ; also great heaps of bacilli in the tubercles of the brain mem- branes. In the little knots of the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys only compara- tively few bacilli were present. 11. — A one-year-old child very much afflicted with atrophy, said to have been taken sick with a cough eight days before its arrival at the hospital. The bronchial symptoms and dyspncea which showed themselves in the first examina- tion, increased, and the child died two and one-half weeks later. The right upper lobe of the lung was found to be caseously infiltrated, bronchial glands caseous. Numerous miliary tubercles on the peritoneum, on the diaphragm and in the spleen. Tuberculous meningitis. In the meningeal tubercles numerous tuberculous bacilli. Nests of bacilli in the caseous parts of the lungs and in the bronchial glands. Scattered bacilli in the tubercles of the peritoneum and diaphragu', ex- clusively enclosed in giant cells. A moderate number of bacilli in the tubercles of the spleen. Etiology of TifBteEocLosis. So 2. — Phthisis of the Lungs. Twenty-nine cases were examined and tlie tuberculous bacilli were wanting in none of them. The number of bacilli, to be sure, varied greatly, but one could recognize here as in miliary tuberculosis, in so far a connection between the number of the bacilli and the phthisic process, that the bacilli were found most abundantly in fresh caseous infiltrations and in the interior of cavities whose environment was in a state of rapid decay. The bacilli were found less abundantly in the cavities provided with compact, callous walls; they were most scarce in scarred, shrivelled lung tissues containing much pigment. The more their number decreases the more they confine themselves to the interior of the giant cells. One may not conclude, however, that each single case conducts itself throughout in a like manner in regard to bacilli, that one phthisic lungshows throughout a great number of bacilli, another, on the contrary, only scattered ones. To be sure it may some- times be so, but it will usually be found that in the same lung some parts are en- tirely free from bacilli, but that in single spots dense nests of the same are present. So especially may cavities of some extent appear almost or wholly free from bacilli, until, by continued investigation, one suddenly finds one or more nests of tubercul(ju3 bacilli in a hidden side indentation or encamped close beside the wall of the cavity, but not yet melted into it, and finds them, too, so thickly crowded together that even under a low magnifying power they appear as dark blue spots. For the examination of phthisic lungs it follows that one may not content himself vyith looking through a number of sections from any one spot, for example from a piece of the wall of a cavity, but should examine as great a variety of places as possible, and should take not too small a number of specimens from each. Only 80 can one get a correct conception of the behavior of tuberculous bacilli in the case in question. After the experience gained in my investigations I should represent the relations of the bacilli to phthisic processes in the following manner : In the beginning only a few, or single bacilli get into the lung, and on account of their slow growth are very soon enclosed by a cell infiltration and thereby hindered from forcing themselves more quickly into the surroundings of the infectious spot. The bacilli, nevertheless, do not perish in the cell infiltration, but cause necrosis and caseous degeneration in the centre of the cell mass, just as in miliary tuberculosis. The first beginning of phthisis would, if one could succeed in getting a sight of it, completely resemble a miliary tuberculosis. The little knot gradually takes larger dimensions and becomes constantly more unlike the miliary tubercle. An analogy of this stage might be found, however, in the not rarely occurring cases of large solitary tubercles, which do not always appear solitary but also scattered to a certain extent in various organs. These also I would consider as having proceeded from single miliary tubercles whose number is so small that they do not bring about the immediate death of their bearer, as is the case in general miliary tuberculosis, but which rather gain time for farther growth, and can finally grow to caseous herds of a good size. It is quite certain that the phthisic process takes the same devel- opment, that, namely, proceeding from alittle miliary knot there grows a con- stantly spreading caseous herd. In the lungs the relations shape themselves very peculiarly, because the increasing caseous herd does not remain closed, 34 J;tlOLO&Y OF TUBKEOtTLOSlS. but after a shorter or longer time makes its way into the bronchise, empties itself and so is changed into a cavity. The further increase of the cavity goes on in a very irregular manner according as the process of vegetation in the tuberculous bacilli makes a halt in single places for a shorter or longer time, or continues, and according to this indentations or shrivelling are formed in places. Taken in general, the cavity, howrever large or irregular formed, re- tains the essential properties of the tuberculous caseous herd ; necrotic masses in the interior, joined to these tovfards the outside nests of epithelioid cells with gigantic cells sandwiched in, and in the giant cells often tuberculous bacilli. An exception occurs only in so far as the tuberculous bacilli in the cavity appear in comparative abundance also in the interior of necrotic masses, which in the caseous herds remaining permanently closed is not usually the case. Probably this has its foundation in the fact that the masses dead, and to a certa,in extent used up as a breeding-^ound for bacilli, are constantly being emptied, and the parting of the walls of the cavity give constantly a new food material for bacilli. In this manner the usual chronic form of phthisis would run its course. In this usual course the vegetation of the bacilli is a very slow one and the occurrence of the bacilli very sparse, and essentially confined to the giant cells in the immediate surrounding of the cavities and to the contents of the same. The circumstance is very noteworthy that even in comparatively small tuber- culous herds the growth and dispersion of the bacilli is not uniform but dis- continous. In large herds, and especially in larger cavities, this behavior, which has already been touched upon, is always more striking. Widespread spaces of the cavity may be wholly free from bacilli and sometimes the bacilli may be confined to single spots of very slight extent. From this we may con- clude that the conditions of life for bacilli in a tuberculous herd are not every- where equally favorable, and probably also in regard to time may be subject to fluctuations. The bacilli must then vanish from the places which no longer give them suitable breeding-ground. In this ease at one time only a temporary freedom from the parasites can take place, when the bacilli from the neighbor- hood later force themselves in or if spores have been left behind which may develop under more favorable conditions. At another time a lasting freedom of the diseased spot from bacilli can take place when the just mentioned con- ditions for the reviving of the bacilli vegetation do not occur. Shrivelling, scarring and healing will follow then in such a place. One can think that since these things may take place partially in the periphery of the tuberculous herd, the same might happen in the whole compass of the herd, and so a com- plete healing take place. Analogous relations are found in other diseases condi- tioned upon bacteria which also spread themselves out centrifugally from the original spot of infection, but can show in their progress considerable irregulari- ties sometimes cease to grow at one point, sometimes thrive and spread rapidly, as is the case, for example, in erysipelas. The development of a single tuberculous herd running its course in the lung under the type of chronic phthisis can be complicated in many ways, if the tuberculous bacilli in any manner get out of the reach of the original herd into other places and there give rise to the development of secondary ^teriOLOGY OF TOBERCULOSiS. 35 herds. This proceeding can complete itself in various ways. The bacilli can get into the larger blood vessels of the lungs, be strewn over the whole body in greater or lesser numbers by the course of the blood and cause miliary tub- erculosis. Then, according to all appearance, the bacilli have the power of spreading themselves also byway of the course of the lymph, of forcibg them- selvesinto thebronchialglands and causing secondary tuberculous changes. The bacilli conveyed from the cavities into tlie air passages find by far the most fre- quent opportunities of fixing themselves in other places. Oftentimes tluy nestle themselves in otlier parts of the air passages and more especially into thelarynx. Often if the sputum be swallowed they plant themselves in the intestinal passage. The usual course of the phthisis must then be most affected when the ba- cilli-bearing pus from the cavities is on the way to be conveyed outward by the bronchise, but by some unfortunate disturbance of the motions of respira- tion is again aspirated and brought into parts of the lung until then healthy. When only a slight quantity, poor in bacilli, is aspirated, it can only bring about the beginning of a comparatively small number of infectious herds. These will gradually grow and develop into cavities according to the place that the bacilli-bearing masses reach, sometimes in the immediate neighbor- hood of the mother herd, sometimes some distance from it, even in the other previously healthy lung, and will from small beginnings grow just as slowly as the first tuberculous herd. But as soon as considerable quantities of the bacilli-rich contents of the cavities are breathed in, and wide-spread parts of the lung are overflowed, as it were, with infectious material, as appears not seldom to be the case, then the formation of single tuberculous knots is not the first step, but tuberculous infiltrations arise which show us by the lobed and even lobuled (lobuliire) arrangement that they cane from the respiratory passages. The penetration of the tuberculous bacilli en masse has not as a consequence heaps of closed cells and the formation of giant cells, as is the case when individual bacilli appear, but necrosis of the component parts of the cells in the at' acked tissue spreads widely and with comparative quickness. In consequence wide-spread caseous degenerations form in many places, also rapid dissolution of the tissue, with development of cavities which bear another character than those formerly described. While these cavities possess compact, firm walls in which are found giant cells and scattered tuberculous bacilli, the walls of cavities formed in the de- composing and widely caseous lung tissue are permeated by a thick bacilli vegetation. They do not consist of condensed callous tissue, which only melts away slowly under the influence of the bacilli, but the wall allows us still plainly to recognize the structure of the alveoli which are filled with the caseous substance rich in bacilli, but are in the act of losing their coherence, and falling to pieces. These conditions are usually described as caseous pneu- monia, acute phthisis, etc. The most various combinations of these two just described processes, that of a tuberculous herd proceeding from a single infectious herd and spreading slowly, and the caseous infiltrations arising from a flood of infectious material, unile to give a most varied conception of the tuberculous destruction of the lungs covered hf the general name phthisis. 36 ETIOLOGY OF TUBBECUL08IS. It deserves still to be mentiotied that the aspirated masses giving n»e to caseous infiltration do not necessarily always spring from a tuberculous herd of the lung. Several recorded observations of animals are at my disposal which prove that a caseous ulceration of the tonsils, or a tuberculous ulcer on the superior margin of the lower jaw, which had developed itself in a rabbit in consequence of a bite, also in one case a caseous bronchial gland communica- ting with the air passages, can furnish the bacili-bearing masses which are breathed into the lungs. On this account therefore, also in man, tuberculous processes in the larynx, throat and mouth, as well as caseous bronchial glands, so soon as the latter empty their contents into the bronchise, are to be kept in sight as points of departure for caieous infiltrations of the lungs. The conduct of the secretion of tuberculous lungs, the phthisic sputum, deserves special consideration. Since tuberculous bacilli occur in no other diseased conditions than in the tuberculous, the demonstration of their presence has great diagnostic importance. The first examinations which I made of phthisic sputum led to the result that abundant numbers of bacilli showed themselves in the sputum in half the cases examined ; in other cases only a few bacilli were to be found, and in many they seemed to be wanting. But when I used Ehrlich's color treatment, and had had more practice among the by no means few cases examined, not one case more occurred in which the bacilli were wanting. I do not mean to say by this, that in single cases, after repeated investigation one may not fail to find bacilli, but in general it must be considered a settled fact, on account of the numerous results in the mean time published also by other investigators, that the bacilli, with few exceptions, constantly occur in phthisic sputum, are wanting in the sputum of other lung diseases, and thereby give an unmistakable diagnostic characteristic mark of the presence of tuberculous affections of the lungs. The bacilli often occur in the sputum in quite considerable numbers. Ap- parently these are always cases in which there is rapid dissolving of the case- ously infiltrated parts of the lungs, and in which the cavity walls have mixed their secretion with the sputum. The well known caseous fragments which from the beginning have been considered as a specially characteristic com- ponent part of phthisic sputum, consist almost wholly of masses of bacilli. One can think that these caseous fragments have arisen from compact bacilli masses, such as are sometimes found on the inner wall of the cavities, becoming loosened, and swept away by the secretion of the cavity. Xeverthelcss, one often meets cases in which the sputum is very poor in bacilli, and must look through a number of specimens, indeed sometimes must repeat the investiga- tions for several successive days before he succeeds in discovering bacilli. Tte sputum mvestigations carried on for a long time by Gaffky with a number of phthisic patients, which are published in this volume of the " Mittheilungen " give the best idea of the frequency of bacilli in phthisic sputum. Very often the bacilli occurring in the sputum are spore-bearing, and this appears to be especially the aase when the bacilli could develop themselves unhindered and abundantly, as is the case in caseous infiltrations. Just those relations are of the greatest importance for the aetiology of tuberculosis, and we shall come back to them later. ^TIOIiOGT OF T0BEKCtJLO8I8. 37 Since the sputum is always more or less mixed ■with saliva, it contains regularly, beside the tuberculous bacilli, other sorts of bacteria, the abundance and variety of these depending upon the amount of saliva and mucus from the cavity of the mouth mixed with it. If sputum is kept for some time in a vessel the tuberculous bacilli remain unchanged, both in reference to their number and to their responsiveness to coloring matter. The other bacteria, on the contrary, increase rapidly in numbers, other bacteria coming from the air or accidental defilement, appear, and a real decay develops itself very soon. Under microscopic investigation one finds, then, numberless bacteria occurring in the fresh sputum out of the cavity of the mouth, or those appearing in decaying sputum, which act in re- gard to color like the tuberculous bacilli. The latter always keep their intense blue color if the coloring is carried on according to the rule, while all other bacteria appear dyed brown. It is still to be mentioned that sometimes bacteria force themselves also into the cavities, and can increase in their secretions so that, in thise cases, one finds in the contents of the cavity not only tuberculous bacilli, but other bacteria. I concerned myself, nevertheless, in the few cases over which my ob- servations of this sort extended, only with certain sorts of bacteria, so one need not suppose that a sort of decay in the contents of the cavity, as in the sputum exposed to the air, existed, but it must be assumed that of the various sorts of bacteria which accident had brought into the cavities, only certain definite kinds can thrive there. These then either lead a harmless parasitic life in the contents of the cavity, as for example, the bacteria of the green pus, which I have repeatedly found in large old cavities, or they, as it seems, take part in the destructive work of the tuberculous bacilli, as seems to me to be the case with a special sort of micrococci. The latter distinguish themselves by a pe- culiar arrangement, almost regularly forming groups of four, and have on that account at first sight a certain resemblance to sarcine, nevertheless in other ways distinguishing themselves essentially from these. Gafflke has studied the properties of these further* and found that they are disease-producing for many species of animals. Also, in the case in which they were first discovered, they appear to have aided in the quick destruction of the lung tissue. It is much to be wished that in future attention should be paid to these combina- tions of phthisis, because they must lead to the finding of such sorts of bacteria as of themselves possess no or only conditional disease-producing properties for the human organism, but under conditions specially favorable to them, as for example in an ulcerous herd of the lung, can form little nests and have a decisive influence on the further course of the process. Of how much impor. tance such secondarily-working bacteria may be has already been mentioned in the description of miliary tuberculosis and the mixed infection occurring there. In connection with phthisis of the lungs, some remarks may here find place in regard to the phthisis of the intestines. Among the twenty-nine cases which I had the opportunity to examine, I received in addition to parts of the phthisic •Langenlaeck's Aroiiv., ToL 88, Book 3. 38 ETIOLOGY OF TUBEKCUL08I8 hmg also, in eight cases pieces of the intestinum tenue with tuberculous ulcer. ations, and just as often caseous mesentric glands. Several times the abscesses of the intestinum tenue were surrounded by fresh tuberculous erruptions, which followed the lymph-passages. The growtli of the bacilli appears, at least so far as we can come to a con- clusion from the material at my disposal, to find more favorable conditions in the intestines than is usually the cass in the lungs. It should not therefore surprise us if, in the excrement of a parson suffering from phthisic and tuber- culous abscesses, tuberculous bacilli occur in comparatively large numbers, as Lichtheim first discovered. Among the numberless and very largely staff- formed bacteria of the intestinal contents the microscopic proof of tuberculous bacilli would have proved itself as good as impossible, if it had not been for the spccitic tinc'.orial properties of the latter, which just in this case proved themselves especially useful. Since from several sides the certainty of the proof of tuberculous bacilli in intestinal excrement has been doubted, I urged Dr. Gaffky to undertake a number of investigations. These showed that neither in the excrement of healthy persons nor in those of sick ones, who were not suffering from tuberculous diseases, any sort of bacteria were found which gave the same sort of color-reaction as the tuberculous bacilli. Also in the case of all persons afflicted with phthisis, who were examined in regard to it and who had tuberculous bacilli in the sputum, it was impossible to prove such in the excrement, but they could regularly be shown in such patients when they had plain symptoms of ulcerous disease of the intestines. One observation made by Gaffky during these investigations deserves special mention. Namely, in the contents of the intestines there not seldom occur large spore-bearing bacilli, whose bodies, like those of all other bacteria, take the brown color, while the spores remain colored more or less intensely blue. The spores appear to be more darkly blue the younger they are. When the body of the bacillus perishes and the spore alone remains, siace in size it resembles a large micro- coccus, it can easily be mistaken for one at first sight ; especially when several spores lie near together they cai be very similar to a little heap of large micro- cocci. Probabl}', therefore, the formations described by Lichtheim as blue- colored micrococci are identical with these spores. But it appsars that other bacilli occurring in the intestines form spores, which by Ehrlich's color-treat- ment keep the blue color, for Gaffky found in the excrement of a tuberculous monkey, beside tuberculous bacilli, bacilli of still larger dimensions than those just mentioned. These had not egg-shaped, but very long-extended, almost staff-shaped, spores. The spores were fixed in the ends, and in bacilli of more than one member so arranged that in two neighboring members the spore- bearing ends were turned towards each other and followed in the manner indi- cated here : — - - — . — '- - — ■ The points are spores, the lines bacilli-members, a peculiar arrangement of the spores to which I on another occasion have already drawn attention.* The spores of the anthrax-bacilli, hay and potato bacilli were also tried by Ehrlich's color-method and did not show the reaction, but it is nevertheless veiy probable that still other sorts of bacilli-spores act "F. Colm'3 Beitrage zur Biology der Pflanzen. VoL 3, Book 3. ETIOLOGY OF TUBBECULOSIS. 39 tinctorially as the sorts described, and that -vrith the help of aniline reaction one would be ab^e to distinguish these sorts of bacilli easily from others. The animal in which the bacilli with staff-shaped spores were found, died and had, as the dissection showed, beside numerous tubercles in the lungs, spleen, etc., several tuberculous abscesses in the intestinum tenue abundantly supplied with tuberculous bacilli. From the cases of phthisis examined I will speak of a few which served as points of departure for inoculation and for the culture of tuberculous bacilli . 1. — A woman of thirty years, whose mother also died of phthisis, suffered for half a year from cough with expectoration. Greatloss of flesh. Occasion- ally slight fever. Death after three months' stay in the hospital. Dissection showed left lung partially deformed as well the upper as the under lobe contain- ing a number of communicating vomicae. Right lung also deformed, containing a large baylike vomica in the upper lobe and several smaller ones in the middle lobe. Spleen, liver, kidneys free from tuberculous changes. Under microscopic investigation only a moderate number of bacilli were found in the contents of the vomicae. In the surroundings of the vomicse, which had com- pact walls, were giant cells grouped around little nucleousless herds and largely supplied with tuberculous bacilli. 2. — Man twenty-three years of age. His mother said to have suffered from phthisis. Had been in the hospital the year before on account of pleurisy. In the last few months repeated haimoptisis. Besides this diarrhoea. At his reception into the hospital thin, anaemic. Suffocation and bronchial breathing over the point of the right lung. Cough with purulent expectoration. Death after four months. In the right lung large vomicae with partly callous, partly caseously infiltrated walls. On the vocal chords tuberculous ulcerations. Beginning amyloid degeneration of the spleen. Numerous ab£ces3es in the intestines, swelling and caseous degeneration of the mcsentric glands. Also in this case the tuberculous bacilli were present in comparatively small numbers in the contents of the vomicse and in the lung tissue, but, on the contrary, were very numerous at the base of the intestinal abscesses and in the caseous mesentric glands. 3. — Workman of forty-three years, quite strongly built. No heredity could be proved. Had suffered for three months from cough, expectoration and in- creasing weakness. Of late his troubles, especially dyspnoea, had grown much worse. Death after twelve days' stay in the hospital. In the tips of both lungs vomicse of moderate size, wide-spread caseous infiltration with occasional softening and formation of vomicfe in the middle and lower parts of the lung. Ulceration in the larynx. In the vomicse as well as in the caseously infiltrated lung tissue, bacilli were found in great quantities. 4.— Man of thirty-two years, not hereditarily burdened. Said to have been sick only four weeks. At his reception into the hospital anaemic, emaciated. Death after six weeks' stay in the hospital. In both lungs numerous vomicae of varying size whose surroundings for a considerable distance were caseously infiltrated. Some smaller vomicte lay near the surface and showed as slight protuberances. These were used to obtain rein culturen. 40 ETIOLOGY OF TUBBEOULOSI8. 5. —Servant girl of nineteen years ; mother died of phthisis ; had suffered for a year from coiigh ; of a delicate build, short hreathed and had profuse sweats. Death after seven weeks' stay in the hospital. In the left upper lobe of the lung a moderately large vomica. The remaining part of the lobe infll. trated and lobular, (lobulilre ?) caseous herds, close together, partly with central decay. On the right almost the whole lung infiltrated with greyish yellow caseous masses and with many softened spots. In the trachea flat ulcerations. In the ileum and in the beginning of the colon numerous abscesses with indented borders. Mesenti ic glands partly freshly cascously infiltrated. As well in the interior of the vomicas as in the caseously infiltrated parts of both lungs extra- ordinary numbers of bacilli were found, mostly heaped together in nests. Also in the intestinal abscesses and mesentric gland tuberculous bacilli were present in considerable numbers. 3. — Tdbeeoulosis of Vaeious Oegans. The cases of tuberculosis examined by me to be mentioned under this di- vision concern single organs which have been obtained, partly from operations, partly from sections, without my knowing anything further of the course of the disease or of the other results obtained from the sections. I can on this account only mention them summarily here. Two cases of tuberculous abscess of the tongue. At the base of the ab- scesses and in places forcing themselves deep into the tissue of the tongue, thick swarms of tuberculous bacilli were found. Tuberculous bacilli were just as abundantly present in four cases of tuber- culosis of the pelvis of the kidneys, in one case of tuberculosis of the bladder and of the urethra, once in tuberculosis of the surenal gland, and in a case of tuberculosis of the uterus and of the tubi. On the contrary, the number of tuberculous bacilli was very small in five tuberculous testicles removed by operations. They could only be proved here singly in the numerously present giant cells. Just the same behavior showed itself also in two cases of large solitary tu- berculous herds of the brain. The appearance of the bacilli here also confined itself to the giant cells. The only case belonging here in which no tuberculous bacilli at all could be proved concerned the examination of pus which came from a tuberculous abscess of the kidneys. Inoculation with this pus had given a positive result, therefore infectinus germs must have been present in the same. We shall speak of this case later and give explanation for the negative result of the mic- roscopic examination. 4. — Scrofulous Glands. The scrofulous glands which I have examined I owe for the most part to Privy Councillor Badeleben, who placed the same at my disposal directly after they were removed. Twenty-one cases ia all were examined in which the glands showed themselves tuberculous. I understand by this the presence of epithelioid cells which are grouped in herds and enclose more or less numer- ous giant cells. With few exceptions, in which a necrosis and caseous degen- eration of the diseased gland tissue had not yet appeared, these cells were ETIOLOGY OF TUBBECULOSIS. 41 joined directly to the caseous herd present, and formed the immediate surround- ing of the same. Only in glands which possessed a tuberculous structure of this sort could tuberculous bacilli be proved. In a mimber of cases, en the contrary, in which the glands were enlarged, partly also softened, and thor- oughly impregnated with herds of pus, but in which epithelioid and giant cells as well as the characteristic necrosis of the tissue were wanting, no bacilli were found. The tuberculous or scrofulous glands examined belonged to twenty-one different patients. Of these eleven were between the ages of ten and twenty years, seven between the ages of twenty and thirty, one each thirty-seven, thirty-nine, and three. The glands had been situated fifteen limes on the neck and in the submaxillary region, three times in the back of the neck, twice in the axilla, and once in the region of the cubitus. In the last case, that of a three-year-old boy, there existed at the same time caries of the wrist on the same side. In three cases there had been a relapse after the first operation, and this had caused a second excision of the glands. In several cases it was stated that phthisis was hereditary in each family. In general the tuberculous glands in reference to their contents of tuber- culous bacilli were very uniform. In the interior of the caseous herd I have found the bacilli only in two cases, and even here only individual specimens. Tlie bacilli appeared only exceptionally and individually between the epitheli- oid cells. On the contrary, among the giant cells there were always some, oc- casionally many, which contained one or two tuberculous bacilli. Giant cells with alarger number of bacilli, as one so often finds them in bronchial and mcs- entric glands, I have never been able to find in scrofulous glands. In the three cases in which after a time a second gland extirpation took place, the glands twice showed themselves to have the same constitution as in the first examination. The third of these cases, which is noteworthy in other respects, was as follows : strongly built man of thirty-four years. A year before large gland tumors had grown on the neck and in both axillae, and at the same time a high degree of anaemia had developed. In the lungs no tu- bercles could be shown. The tumors which had been excised had the figure and size of potatoes, were of a soft, almost marrow-like constitution, and with- out caseous changes in the interior. The microscopic investigation showed that in the swelled mass numberless little herds of epithelioid cells were im- bedded, which contained in their midst one or more giant cells. In many cf these giant cells one or at most two tuberculous bacilli were found. Very rarely it occurred that one bacillus was situated in the interior of an epithelioid cell, close beside the nucleus of the same. Scarcely a year after the removal of these glands, almost equally large tumors have developed themselves anew on the same spots. These were extirpated again and showed the same microscopic conduct, only with the exception that the number of bacilli-bearing giant cells had decidedly increased in comparison with the previous tumors. 5 — Tttbeeoulosis of the Joints and Bones. There were examined by me thirteen tuberculous joints, three hip joints, five knee joints, three elbow joints, one foot joint, and one finger joint ; further, 42 JETIOLOGY OF TUBEEOtJLOSlS. ten tuberculous affections cf the bone, thus divided : three times on wrist bones, five times on ankle bones, twice vortex caries (of these last in one case only the pus was examined). To a great extent I owe this material for examination to Privy Councillor Bardeleben. The granulation-tissue which is formed in the surroundings of tuberculous joints and bones offers no essential difference in the single cases. The same appearances repeat themselves constantly in the structure of the tissue and in the arrangement of the bacilli, and resemble completely the dsscription given of scrofulous glands. One finds just the same more or less scattered and often confluent herds of epithelioid cells which surround giant cells, and also here the occurrence of bacilli is confined almost exclusively to the giant cells. In the caseous, nucleusless spots, as well as in the pus secretions, the attempts to find scattered bacilli only succeeded in some cases. Also in this respect tu- berculosis of the bones and joints conducts itself exactly like that of the scrofu- lous glands. The bacilli could be proved in all the cases. Only in the abscess pus coming from the vortex caries was it impossible to find tuberculous bacilli. But in- oculation with this pus, as was formerly mentioned of the pus of a tuberculous abscess of the kidneys, gave a positive result. 6. — Luptjs. According to the anatomical investigations of Friedlaender and the positive results of inoculation which Huter and Schiiller have obtained, it was to be expected that lupus must also belong to the group of genuine tuberculous diseases. I therefore used the opportunity offered to me by Director Hahn, Prof. Kuster and Prof. Lewin, soon after the publication of my first commu- nication concerning the setiology of tuberculosis, to examine a number of cases of lupus in order to gain certainty in regard to this supposition. Seven cases of lupus were investigated, which all had the most decided symptoms and were watched for a long time in ths hospital, so that no doubt of the correctness of the diagnosis can be entertained. From four cases I received excised pieces of the skin, from the other three cases lupus substance scraped out. For direct microscopic examination only the excised p'.eces of skin were suitable. In all four cases, though only a few specimens in each, tuberculous were found, only, however, in the interior of giant cells. The tuberculous bacilli are so scattered in tlie lupus tissue that in two cases the bacilli were notfound until from one twentj'-seven sections, from the other forty-three sections had been examined. Nevertheless, it happened repeatedly that when in a succession of sections not a single bacillus showed itself, sections followed each other quickly with from 1 — 3 bacilli. More than one bacillus I have never seen in a giant cell in lupus. It may for the present be remarked here that of all the seven eases, inoc- ulations were made into the anterior eye-chambers of rabbits, which without exception produced tuberculosis of the iris, and in those animals which were allowed to live for a longer time, general tuberculosis. In these tubercles re- sulting from inoculation numerous tuberculous bacilli were found. From one case (excised piece of skin from tlie cheek of a ten-year-old boy suffering from .STIOLOGT or T0BEECU.LOB1S. 43 lupws hypertrophieus) success was obtained in getting renicultnren of bacilli, which have also been used for the successful inoculation of animals. B.— TUBERCULOSIS IN ANIMALS. By the study of the appearances under which tuberculosis runs its course, in the various sorts ol animals, the noteworthy fact is manifest that tuberculosis conducts itself differently in the case of almost every species. However striking this fact at first appears, it nevertheless corresponds to the observations made in regard to other bacteria diseases. So inflammation of the spleen in a similar manner is different in different animals ; septiciimie of mice, conditioned upon very small bacilli, offers another example, for when it is inoculated it kills mice, but in rabbits only causes an erysipelas-like disease confined to the skin. Until now no warm-blooded animal is known which is entirely unrespon- sive to the infection of the tuberculous virus, and one may therefore ejpect that many varieties will show themselves in the anatomical aspect of tubercu- losis in the various species of animals. However various the forms which the symptoms of tuberculosis may take in single species, and however little one may be inclined to explain human phthisis and a tuberculosis of a guinea pig caused by inoculation as the same sort of disease, nevertheless between these extremes there are found, partly in the same species, still more in other species, transitional forms of tuberculosis which cause the apparent gulf to vanish. But the complete unity of the tubercu- lous processes of different species of animals shows itself to be irrefutable wlien we look away from the constitution of the tuberculous organs as seen by the naked eye, and from the secondary changes in the same, sucli as caseous degeneration and calcination, and keep to the primary structure of the tubercle, which, as we have already seen, repeats itself with typical regularity in all the various proces- ses in man, and equally so in the apparently so different forms of tuberculosis i a the various species ol animals. The diiferences in the tuberculosis of different species of animals which most attract the eye concern only those secondary changes whicli in the one case lead to wide-spread coagulation-necrosis wi h- out caseous degeneration (liver and spleen of guinea pigs); in another to rapid softening and the formation of a thinly liquid, pus-lilie secretion (tubercle of the monkey); further to transformation into hop-like caseous substance (tuber- cul'sis of man); to simultaneous calcination and caseous degeneration (pearl distemper of cattle); to the formation of hard swollen masses with deposited lime " concrcmenten " (tuberculosis of the fowl)— and so forth. The primary changes in all these cases are histologically exactly alike. Somewhat the same is true in regard to the formation of pus in various animals. So the pus formed in consequence of a simple inflammation in the rabbit and the fowl has an en- tirely different constitution than that of man, and yet in this case one would not speak of different sorts of pus formation. It would lead too far if the special peculiarities of every single kind of animal should be described in detail, and I shall therefore be obliged to confine myself to a brief characterizing of the different forms. 44 ETIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. r. — ^Pbelstjoht of Cattlb. The tuberculosis of cattle runs its course, as is well known, almost always by tlie forming of little knots which do not really become caseous and perish, but become calcareous and heap themselves together in such masses that they can finally form great tumors. Bat beside these there occur widespread firmly caseous infiltrations cf the lung tissue, as well as hollow spaces in the lungs, filled with pap-like caseous masses. Of the last mentioned form only four cases were examined. The caseous contents of the cavities were of such a consistence that when the cavities were cut the contents could bo pressed out in sausage-shaped masses. The cavities themselves appeared to have proceeded from enlarged bronchiae. In their walls were found quite numerous giant cells, and in a number of these last one to several tuberculous bacilli. The caseous masses were, as the inoculations performed with them showed, infectious, yet no bacilli could be found in them. On the places where the " bronchi-ectalischen" cavities approached the surface of the lungs, the usual knot-shaped tumors of the " perlsucht " were found on the pleura, and showed the immediate connection with this form of cattle tuberculosis. Of this last form eleven cases were exaniined in which the development of the knots of the " perlsucht" did not confine themselves to the lungs, but reached out to the diaphragm, psritoneum and omentum. Several times the mesenterial glands were tuberculously changed and impregnated with firm caseous herds. The tuberculous bacilli were wanting in no case, yet here their number was extraordinarily fluctuating. In some cases only comparatively few bacilli, and those exclusively in the giant calls of the ' ' perlsucht " knots, were found, similarly as in scro!ul3us glands, and in the already mentioned caseous (cheesy) herds in the lungs of cattle. I am, therefore, not able to share the often-expressed opinion that " perlsucht " knots, in contract with the tub- ercles in man, are always rich in bacilli. Besides such cases as run their course slowly and always show very few bacilli, there are those in which permanently or only temporarily the number of bacilli may be very consider- able. Also, in the same lung bacilli may be found to be very numerous in some spots and very scarce in others. Sections prepared from large and hard, therefore older knots contained often only scattered bacilli in giant ce'.ls. The younger knots, on the contrary, showed themselves extraordinarily rich in bacilli and allowed the recognition of the formerly mentioned relations between bacilli and giant cells with great ease. Besides tliis, bacilli are found between the small cells in such numbers that in places they give the specimen a bluish color. The caseous mesentric glands of cattle suffering from "perlsucht", which I received for examination, were always extraordinarily rich in bacilli. The bacilli were, on the contrary, less numerous in the ragged " perlsiichtigen " luxuriant growths, permeated with many little hard knots and taken from the pericardium of a beef -creature and also in the knots, which in such a case had their seat in the kidneys. In all thcnumberof cases of "perlsucht " examined amounted to seventeen, and the bacilli were wanting in none of them. ArlOLOGY OF TUBEEODLOSIS. 4:6 '4. — Ttjbeeoulosis of the Hoesb. Four cases, of which, to be sure, I could not obtain all the organs, were examined, nevertheless it could easily be seen that tuberculosis of the horse lakes a middle place between that of cattle and the same disease in man. In places the tuberculous formations on the peritoneum and omentum bore the greatest resemblance to the " perlsucht "-knots of cattle, while in the same cases and simultaneously, the lungs were permeated with extraordinarily nu- merous miliary tubercles, which give them, on the surface of the section com- pletely, the appearance of a human lung supplied with miliary tubercles. In one case the way in which the tuberculous virus had gotinto the course of the blood led to miliary tuberculosis. Namely, the retroperitoneal glands were, changed into a very large tumor permeated with firm yellowish caseous herds, which partly enclosed the vena cava inferior and formed uneven protuberances towards the interior of the ven . Sections through this gland mass, and espe- cially through the knots reaching into tlie vena cava, exhibited extraordinary numbers of tuberculous bacilli, partly free, partly filling the numerous giant cells. Several of the knots were softened on their surface and had plainly mingled many tuberculous bacill with the blood of the vena cava. The mili- ary tuberculosis had, therefore, arisen here in the same manner as it has been shown by Weigert to arise in man. Also, in the other cases of tuberculosis in horses, tuberculous bacilli could be proved in the knots from the omentum and peritoneum, in the immensely enlarged bronchial glands, and in the tuberculous knots of the lungs, spleen and liver ; and moreover, here and there they were discovered in great numbers. 3. TtTBEEOULOSIS OF THE PiG. This appears to occur comparatively very often. Especially there are often found in the pig, caseous changes in the lymph glands of the neck which are of a tuberculous nature. In four cases in which I received such glands for examination, tuberculous bacilli were found each time, partly free, partly in giant cells. Besides this there occurs in a pig a peculiar form of caseous pneu- monia, in which large parts of the lung are lobularly infiltrated with greyish- red to greyish-yellow colored masses and are almost completely empty of air. ' I have examined five cases of this form. The alveoli were here and there filled with dense heaps of tuberculous bacilli. In other places the bacilli had already, forced themselves into the surrounding tissue and bacilli-bearing giant cells had formed here. In two cases one or even several bacilli -bearing giant cells frequently showed themselves free in the alveolar spaces. It here concerned itself plainly in all these cases of caseous pneumonia about a tuberculosis aris- ing from the aspiration of considerable masses of bacilli. In one case the still fresh infection of the lung appeared to have proceeded from the tonsils, which were changed into deep ulcerations provided with a caseous base and also con- taining tuberculous bacilli. Once I received pieces of muscle from a nig, which were impregnated with numerous little knots for the most part calcareous. These proved themselves under microscopic examination to be tuberculous ; they contained giant cells, supplied with tuberculous bacilli. 46 ^tlOLOGY OF TUBEBCtTLOSIS. 4. — Ttjbbhoulosis of the Goat and Shkbp. I only once had opportunity to examine a lung of a sheep supplied with tuberculous knots and the bronchial glands belonging wilh it partly caseous and calcerous. The lung tubercles contained giant cells, with not very numer- ous tuberculous bacilli. In the bronchial glands the bacilli were present more abundantly. One case from the goat was also at my disposal, which, to be sure, had special interest, in so far that a cavity almost as large as a fist had formed in the right as well as in the left lung, and furnished the proof that under some circumstances a condition completely analogous to human phthisis can be developed in animals. The cavities were partly filled with caseous pus. Their inner wall was sinuous, raw and fringy. Numerous giant cells with tuberculous bacilli were found in the enclosing tissue ; single bacilli could also be shown in the purulent contents of the cavities. Besides this, the lung tissue in the surroundings of the cavities and for a pretty wide space was impregnated with miliary tuberculous knots, which were also provided with bacilli-bearing giant cells. Some largish knots in the spleen and liver, as well as the greatly enlarged and caseous bronchial glands, showed the same behavior. 5. — TUBBEOULOSIS OF THE FOWL. This is usually endemic and not seldom destroys all the fowls of a yard. More or less rough, sometimes also perfectly smooth tumors are found in the intestines and liver of the diseased animals. These tumors are as large as peas or walnuts. In one of the cases examined one knot in the liver even reached the size of a little apple. These tumors are of a compact constitution, show themselves spotted whitish and yellowish on the intersection, and on the yellow spots are partly calcareous. In one case tuberculous knots of almost the size of a hemp-seed were present in the marrow of the bone of the long tubes (riihren). All these knots, which belong to four different creatures, were ex- traordinarily rich in tuberculous bacilli, these heaping themselves especially in the immediate surroundings of the calcarous parts. In the knots situated en the intestines the tuberculous bacilli could be followed into the villi intestina- lis, and it is hence not improbable that they found their entrance to the inner organs from the intestines, especially also as once only scattered little knots were found in the lungs. On the other hand, it may be concluded from this result, that the bacilli can get into the contents of the intestines, be excreted with these and give rise to further infection, just as is the case in intestinal tuberculosis in man. TUBEEOULOSIS OP THE MoNKET. In the case of the monkey tuberculosis acts differently, iii several respects,! from the tuberculosis in man. It does not usually remain confinedlong to one organ, but at an early stage spreads itself over the whole body. Then it does not appear in the form of numerous little knots, which have an equal size, as in human miliary tuberculosis, but leads to the formation of a larger or smaller Lumber of tuberculous herds, whose size is very varying and which contain, especially lu the liver, spleen and glands, instead of the firm caseous substance of the tuberculosis in man, a rather thinly fluid pus, s > that they rather maV.e ^ETIOLOGY