Tuberculosis . 129 



bovine population. Of the victims of Rinderpest and Lung 

 Plague that do not speedily die practically all recover. Are the 

 slighter cases therefore to be kept alive to perpetuate indefinitely 

 those disastrous visitations that sweep away values of hundreds 

 of millions ? Is the remorseless scourge of tuberculosis to be 

 perpetuated, not only in herds, but in our homes as well, to save 

 for a few months or years some tuberculous cows ? No country 

 has ever dealt successfully with any of these animal plagues on 

 the basis of preserving the mild cases for recovery. Always and 

 everywhere it has been by the radical and thorough extinction of 

 the disease germ wherever found, that success has been achieved. 

 While this cannot be done for man, it must be done for our flocks 

 and herds if we would ever cut off this prolific animal source of 

 tuberculosis from the human race. Even as regards the herds 

 themselves the stockowner who would consult his own future in- 

 terests, would at any cost exclude from his barns and fields every 

 possible source of future tuberculosis. 



As will be shown below the meat and milk of tuberculous ani- 

 mals contain tuberculin (even when they do not contain the 

 bacilli), and serve to aggravate any existing or latent tuberculosis 

 in man. 



4th. A fourth objection to the tuberculin test is its alleged lia- 

 bility to produce tuberculosis in healthy animals, or to aggravate 

 it in the tuberculous ones. 



Now tuberculin, properly prepared is absolutely sterilized, so 

 that it can plant no living germ nor start the growth of any 

 tubercle in a healthy animal. The further claim that it aggra- 

 vates tuberculosis which is already in existence, is too true, and 

 is the sound basis of its value as a test. As a means of testing 

 the existence of tuberculosis in man it cannot be too strongly 

 condemned, since no man has a right to seal the fate of his fellow 

 for the sake of finding out if he has tuberculosis. The same 

 condemnation must be passed on the use of tuberculin as an 

 alleged curative agent, except in those few cases in which the 

 tubercle is confined altogether to the surface of the body, whence 

 it can easily be sloughed off. The existence or possible existence 

 of an internal or deep-seated tubercle in man should forbid the 

 use of tuberculin for diagnosis or for curative purposes. 



The same remark would apply to animals if we adopt the Ger- 



