TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE AND ITS 



CONTROL. 



BY JAMES LAW. 



PREVALENCE AND RELATIVE IMPORTANCE. 



Our interest in tuberculosis centers in two leading questions : 

 First, its prevalence in man ; and second, its diffusion among 

 domestic animals which furnish food for man. If we consider 

 the disease in man only, we must view it first in its sanitary 

 relations, and, as regards the measures available for its restric- 

 tion, in its moral bearings. If we consider the disease in the 

 domestic animals we enter largely into its economic bearing, 

 but in view of the use of these animals and their products for 

 human food the sanitar}- and moral questions must also be 

 admitted. 



MAN: GENERAL MORTALITY. 



In man it is admitted that, in civilized countries, where data 

 can be secured, one death in seven is due to tuberculosis. Allow- 

 ing 15 deaths per 1,000 on our 70,000,000, this would furnish 

 150,000 deaths per annum from tuberculosis in the United 

 States. Dr. Osier, of Johns Hopkins University, says this is a 

 very low estimate. A war which should leave 150,000 dead on 

 the battle field every 3'ear would rouse the nation to put a speedy 

 end to the destruction. The mortality from tuberculosis exceeds 

 the combined deaths from war, famine, plague, cholera, 3'ellow 

 fever and smallpox. Yet we have those among us who deprecate 

 any intelligent measure for the extinction or restriction of this 

 source of such a constant mortality' and loss. 



The mortalit}^ from tuberculosis in man rises far above this 

 ratio when conditions are favorable to its propagation. In some 

 large cities (Vienna) the ratio of deaths from tuberculosis is more 

 than double what it is for the entire countr}'. In the Marquesas 



