Reported Mortality

1886 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal  
the mesenteric glands, and liver was developed within a period varying from six to eight and one-third weeks. The spleen, omentum, kidneys, pleura and peritoneum were, on the contrary, never found affected, the part chiefly involved being the intestinal mucous membrane, the extent of this depending on the duration of the experiment and the richness of the tuberculous material in bacilli. Falk had previously shown that the digestive juices, contrary in this respect to their action on the anthrax
more » ... bacilli, have little or no effect on the tubercle bacilli, neither killing them nor even weakening them, and Fischer has arrived at a similar conclusion. On the other hand, putrefaction has a most distinct effect on the tuberculous poison ; on feeding the animals with putrefactive tuberculous material, either no changes at all were found, or they were slight and limited for the most part to the mesenteric glands and vermiform process, and as the number of the bacilli in such material was in no way diminished, the difference in the action could only be ascribed to a weakening of the pathogenic activity of the organisms, brought about by prolonged contact with putrefactive organic substances.
doi:10.1056/nejm188604151141512 fatcat:c7anoyfjcrftxn5iiua2sb5cuu