Fig. 65. One of the effects of tuberculosis.
(4) Of the glands
Sometimes we see children and grown people with swellings on their necks. These swellings may look smooth, but they feel as if they were made up of little bunches of grapes or plums under the skin. They are almost always due to the growth of the germs that cause tuberculosis of the little glands of the neck.
(5) Of the stomach
Any one of the other glands of the body is just as liable to become affected by tuberculosis as are the glands of the neck. Tuberculosis of the stomach or bowels is not at all uncommon.
The germs of tuberculosis are likely to attack any of the tissues of the body, especially if the cells composing these tissues are for any reason weakened so that they cannot do the work required of them. When the tuberculosis germs grow in tissues, the tissues finally break down and an abscess forms. A tubercular abscess is sometimes called a "cold abscess."
All such abscesses finally break and an open sore results. The matter that comes from the open sore and from the abscess when it is first opened is full of the germs that cause tuberculosis. If this matter is allowed to become dry, the germs are blown about in the dust. Then other people may inhale them or take them into their bodies through the mouth or skin and thus contract consumption.
The old belief that consumption is inherited
Until a few years ago it was generally believed that consumption was inherited. That is, it was thought that children whose father or mother had consumption were born with the disease. Even to-day many people hold to this idea, because they have not studied or learned of the discoveries made in recent years. These people still believe that if a child's father or mother dies of tuberculosis, the child will die of tuberculosis, too, no matter how careful he may be or how much of a fight he may make against it.
It is true that many people whose parents have died of consumption also die from this disease; but this does not prove that they were born with consumption. It merely shows that they had a good chance to catch the disease by being continually with some one who had it. It is also true that a great many people die from consumption whose parents did not have it. If consumption is an inherited disease, where did these people get it?