350 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bovines suffer from both respiratory and intestinal tuber- 

 culosis. A form of tuberculous peritonitis and pleurisy to which 

 they are subject is known as grape disease and is comparable 

 with the forms of more chronic peritonitis in man. Large 

 masses of tuberculous material are found studded over the 

 peritoneum. 



In about half the cases of bovine tuberculosis both forms of 

 tubercle are present : in one-third the lungs alone are affected. 



In cattle the ovaries are affected rather more often than 

 the testicles, whereas in adult man disease of the testicles is 

 occasionally met with, whilst that of the ovaries is very rare. 



Cattle are subject to tuberculosis of the joints. Tuberculosis 

 of the udder is a form of disease which is of particular interest 

 from its bearing on the infection of milk. In a series of German 

 experiments, it was found that 55 per cent, of the milk from 

 tuberculous udders was capable of producing infection in ex- 

 perimental animals. Calves fed on tuberculous milk succumb 

 to the disease and the calves of tuberculous mothers frequently 

 become infected. 



The careful experiments of the Royal Commissioners l 

 on Tuberculosis prove that calves suckled by cows suffering 

 from tuberculosis of the udder, produced experimentally by 

 injection into that organ of tubercle bacilli from either bovine 

 or human sources, always sustain infection of mesenteric glands 

 and sometimes ulceration of the intestine; they occasionally 

 exhibit tuberculosis of the submaxillary and pharyngeal glands. 



Calves fed on milk containing known quantities of tubercle 

 bacilli were proved to sustain similar lesions : the thoracic glands 

 being also affected in some cases. 



When the dose was large and the strain one found to be 

 virulent in bovines, more extensive tuberculosis ensued, the 

 tonsils in these cases also being affected. 



Whilst it cannot be denied that milk is a possible and some- 

 times an actual source of tuberculous infection, especially in 

 children, it does not necessarily follow that lesions of the in- 

 testine and its glands are a sequence of the ingestion of infected 

 food only. 



In the experiments quoted, tubercle of the thoracic glands 

 sometimes occurred when tubercle bacilli could reach the calf 



1 Second Interim Report, 1907. Compare Science Progress, No. 24, April 

 1912. 



