206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



specimens of meat tliat are affected with antlirax poison, which is 

 ever liable to be transmitted. 



Many varieties of diseased meat, however, are so palpable that 

 even by the dexterity of the butcher's art it is impossible to disguise 

 them. The tuberculous deposits upon the pleural membrane lining 

 the chest cavity, thus causing the lungs to adhere to the ribs, or 

 along the internal walls of the abdomen, are sufficient evidence to 

 condemn tiie carcass. 



TUBERCULOSIS INFECTIOUS. 



As this disease is comparatively new to the veterinarian, especially 

 when viewed in the light of the germ theory, its clinical history 

 and patholog}' has not received that attention which the subject now 

 demands. In order to prove that tuberculosis is a purely parasitic 

 malady, caused b}' the growth and invasion of these vegetable germs, 

 it is necessar}' to isolate and cultivate these bacilli in a state of pur- 

 ity, free from every heterogeneous element and until ever}' morbid 

 product from the infected animal and which might adhere to them, 

 is grot rid of. This Dr. Koch has done and these isolated germs he 

 has transplanted in animals and by this inoculation he has produced 

 tuberculosis with all the morbid phenomena, such as have been ob- 

 served, following the experimental inoculation of the virus, as we 

 shall notice further on. In fact, few are aware to-day of the extent 

 to which this insidious malady prevails, but the rapid strides which 

 it has made and the hold it has already gained on our stock, ob- 

 serves a well-known veterinary author, renders it one of the most 

 important questions affecting the well-being of the bovine species.* 



The contagious nature of tuberculosis, as shown by recent experi- 

 ments on animals, can no longer be doubted, and it is now conceded 

 by comparative pathologists that the bovine form of this disease is 

 identical with that of man. Consequently there is great liability of 

 its transmission, either by inoculation or ingestion. In fact, it has 

 repeatedly been produced in rabbits, guinea-pigs, and calves by 

 feeding them with tuberculous matter. Prof. Gerlach of the Berlin 

 Veterinar}' School claims,! as the result of his researches, that this 

 disease in cattle is very infectious, that the presence of a specific 



*The Four Bovine Scourges, ^rith an Appendix on the Inspection of Meat, etc., by Thomas 

 Wallej , M. C. R. Y. S., Principal ot the Edinburg Royal Veterinary College, 1879. 

 fThe Veterinarian, London, March number, 1875. 



