218 BOARD OF AGRICULTT'RE. 



discussion as you may draw out of him. It is hoped that this im- 

 portant subjoct, although somewhat dry under ordinary circum- 

 stances, will be made of such interest that you will feel the after- 

 noon has been well and profitably spent. 



Dr. Cressey — After concluding his formal lecture said : Gentle- 

 men, I have given you briefly all that is known on the subject ex- 

 cept to enter into the discussion of the germ theory, which would 

 prolong my lecture another hour. I have given you the facts as 

 thev are understood by the best authorities. I desire to say that 

 when a diseased animal shall be found, it ought at once to be taken 

 care of. The chairman of your cattle commission should have full au- 

 thoritv to seize such an animal and destroy it, whether the owner is 

 willing or not. The public must be protected. Your legislature, 

 before it adjourns, should enact a law giving full power to the chair- 

 man of your cattle commission, so that this disease, wherever it ap- 

 pears, may be stamped out. But the sensational and exaggerated 

 reports that have been in circulation in this State of late have done 

 more harm to your stock industry than would be occasioned by the 

 killing of a dozen such herds as that which has been on your State 

 Farm at Orono. Wherever an animal is found to be really suffering 

 with this disease of tuberculosis, it should be killed of course, but 

 to excite and alarm the people is unnecessar}' and unwise. 



Question. What are some of the first indications of tuberculosis? 



Dr. Ckessey. Coughing and growing poor ; though man}* ani- 

 mals that are in fine condition cough. 



Question. Do they always have a cough ? 



Dr. Cresset. Not always, but those that have the disease on the 

 lungs do. Many of them have it by ingestion and the peritoneal 

 cavity is affected, while the lungs may not show a particle of it. I 

 have killed several animals and found the lungs perfectly sound, but 

 any quantity of these tubercles in the peritoneal cavity. 



Question. Do you say that tuberculosis and consumption are iden- 

 tical forms of disease ? 



Dr. Cressey. If you mean tubercular consumption, I do. The 

 word consumption is also applied to the termination of lung fever. 

 For instance, a man has had a lung fever and a deposit has taken 

 place in the lungs which afterwards break down and become soft, 

 cheese-like, and is therefore called caseated pneumonia. This type 

 of the disease is called consumption, but it is not necessarih' con- 

 tagious. In the human subject three-quarters of the cases of con- 

 sumption are tuberculosis, probably. 



