The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of twenty-four cases of tuberculosis in children and infants, with special reference to the bovine or human type of infecting organism in each case.
The results of most investigations into the occurrence of the bovine type of the tubercle bacillus in tuberculosis of children tend to demonstrate the importance of this organism in cases appearing in the early years of life, despite the authoritative opinion expressed by Koch in 1901. It seems to be the general opinion that the bovine type of bacillus is not so likely to be the one found in cases distinctly pulmonary in character as in cases of abdominal, meningeal or bone and joint tuberculosis; as to the rôle played by the bovine organism in tuberculous adenitis opinions vary. The two largest reliable collections of cases in which the types of tubercle bacilli have been determined