Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

Health and Temperance.

CONTAGIOUSNESS OF CONSUMPTION.

DR. E. W. CUSHING, of Boston, not long since read a paper before the Suffolk Medical Society, giving a summary of the evidence on which Professor Koch bases his view, that tubercular consumption is caused by living organisms, and is therefore infectious. It is published in the Medical and Surgical Journal, and we use it freely in this article.

As early as 1843 Klenke proved that rabbits could be rendered tuberculous by inoculating them with expectoration from consumptive patients. It had been previously proved that anthrax (malignant pustule) was due solely to a living organism. The question was whether or not consumption was due to a similar organism, of a different species.

In tuberculous patients such organisms were found in the expectorations, in the lung tissues, in scrofulous glands, and in tuberculous joints; and they were exactly alike in all, each organism (rod-shaped) containing from four to six spores, or seeds.

Professor Koch conducted his investigations for years in every variety of form, to eliminate all possibility of error. The peculiar organisms were found in every case. Over five hundred small animals were inoculated from tuberculous patients, and a post-mortem of the animals showed the presence of the organisms in every case.

On the other hand, all sorts of other diseases were carefully studied without showing a single organism of the kind. Again, when a consumptive patient recovered, all the organisms disappeared from the expectoration.

Further, the organisms were found at the very first stage of the disease, thus indicating that they were its cause, not its product. To render the thing absolutely certain, the organisms were so cultivated out of the body as to separate them from every other contagious element. When these were used to inoculate with, they invariably rendered the animal tuberculous.

These organisms require for their development a rather high temperature and a peculiar soil. They are quite tender, so that they readily perish, thus lessening their liability to communicate the disease. They gain access to the system mainly by the breath. The dust-like particles of dried expectoration furnish an abundance of spores.

Professor Koch communicated the disease to many rabbits and guinea-pigs by simple inhalation. It is clear that all expectorations of consumptive persons should be thoroughly disinfected, and their rooms kept well ventilated. Weakly persons should specially avoid exposure, as their systems afford the best soil for the spores.—Youth's Companion.