The influence of heredity and contagion on the propagation of tuberculosis : and the prevention of injurious effects from consumption of the flesh and milk of tuberculous animals / by A. Lydtin, G. Fleming, and M. Van Hertsen.
- Date:
- [1884]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The influence of heredity and contagion on the propagation of tuberculosis : and the prevention of injurious effects from consumption of the flesh and milk of tuberculous animals / by A. Lydtin, G. Fleming, and M. Van Hertsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![gressive gangrene of the big toe, and who was apparently free from tubercles. He died thirty-eight days after inoculation, and ■on post-mortem examination recent tubercles were found in the two anterior lobes of the lungs.* The following: case of transmission of bovine Tuberculosis to man, related by Dr. Stang, of Amborach, has gone the round of the medical press. A boy, five years'old, apparently strong in con- stitution and descended from healthy parents, whose progenitors were exempt from hereditary disease, was attacked with Scrofula, and died in four weeks from Miliary Tuberculosis of the lungs and enormous hypertrophy of the mesenteric glands. When making the autopsy, it was accidentally ascertained that some lime before the parents had to destroy a cow, which, according to the testimony of the veterinary surgeon, was affected with Pulmonary Phthisis. The animal had been a good milch cow, ■ind for a long time the boy had received a quantity of the milk, immediately after it was drawn, f * Fleming : British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1874, p. 473. Johne : Geschichte der Tuberkulose. 1883. t It is very difficult to trace infection from diseased cows to mankind, as there are so many obstacles and objections to be overcome in accepting, as conclusive, evidence in favour of direct transmission, either through the flesh or milk. At most the evidence is only presumptive ; but it is by no means scant, and might be largely supplemented if inquiry were made. For instance, in the discussion on Tuberculosis, at the meeting of the National Veterinary Association, held in London, in May, 1883, Mr. Hopkin said : If we feed children on diseased meat, will it produce Tuberculosis now or ten years hence ? I had an assistant who came to me from one of the islands on the coast of Scotland. The family from which he was derived was healthy and strong ; but when two of his sisters were young, the herd of cattle became affected with Tuberculosis. These girls were fed upon milk from these cattle. The two brothers, who were more fond of whisky than milk, are still hale and healthy—the sisters are lying in their grave, victims to Tuberculosis. Human morbid anatomy also furnishes what may be deemed presumptive evidence, such as is given in Creighton's Bovine Tuberculosis in Man. Judging from analogy, there can be little doubt that the disease is transmis- sible from animals to mankind, and the fact would be demonstrated very speedily if experiments could be resorted to. At the above meeting, at which ] was president, in alluding to this point, I made the following remarks : A great difficulty we meet with is that, while we can experiment upon animals to prove the transmissibility of the malady from one to the other, we cannot do so with regard to the human species. Gentlemen, it has struck me that we sometimes waste human life—that we throw away very good opportunities for experiment, by the manner in which we dispose of our criminals. I think no better use could be made of those condemned to death, than by experimenting in this direction. We know that if animals be fed for a certain time with tuberculous matter, serious changes will take place in their bodies, although](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21914382_0097.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
