DAIRY MEETING. IO5 



is often found but would be overlooked by a careless man on 

 post-mortem. 



Other objections made are that the tuberculin test is too 

 accurate, because it condemns cattle so lightly diseased they 

 ought not to be destroyed. A cow is tuberculous, however, if 

 but one lymphatic gland be affected, and contains the specific 

 germ of the disease, and if tuberculous at all, she may be infec- 

 tious, and such mild or latent cases are liable to assume at any 

 time an acute type under unusual conditions, and cows may 

 appear to be in ideal physical condition so far as the eye could 

 read external symptoms, while "within they are like whited 

 sepulchres full of dead men's bones." 



The type of tuberculosis common among cattle is decidedly 

 chronic and rarely acute. Mankind usually show the disease 

 by failing health in much earlier stages than bovines, the 

 latter failing to show external evidence of the disease until it 

 is far advanced. Their appetite and function of digestion do 

 not appear to be interfered with, and they readily take on flesh, 

 and produce large quantities of milk, while extensive lesions 

 of tuberculosis are present. 



While employed as U. S. Government Inspector in the large 

 packing houses in South Omaha, I recall one case of a steer 

 v^eighing 1200 pounds which previous to being slaughtered was 

 in ideal condition but on post-mortem, extensive lesions of 

 tuberculosis were found and this was only one of many such 

 cases. I also have in mind a herd I visited in Falmouth three 

 or four years ago among which was a very fine Jersey, appar- 

 ently perfectly healthy. The owner said, "Dr. Spear, there is 

 a cow I have picked out as the best one in the stable." and in 

 appearance she certainly was but to our utter surprise after 

 injecting the tuberculin and taking the temperature next morn- 

 ing she had a rise of four degrees, stood with head down and 

 not taking much notice of things around her. On post-mortem 

 tuberculous lesions were found pretty well distributed. The 

 owner told me his baby had been fed on this particular cow's 

 milk and had not seemed well for some time and he had won- 

 dered if it could be the milk. This only proves positively that 

 it is simply impossible to diagnose tuberculosis in some animals 

 without applying the tuberculin test, unless the animal be in 

 the very last stages of the disease. 



