DISCUSSION ON CATTLE DISEASES. 210 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. We do not have much fear of contagion from 

 consumption, but it is feared from tuberculosis because it is a new 

 name among us. 



Dr. Cressey. I would not allow a child lo sleep with a personi 

 sick with consumption, and I should consider it criminal carelessness- 

 on the part of a phj'sician to allow it. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. I hope that when the doctor's paper comes out- 

 in print it will receive a most careful reading, especiall}' b}' those who 

 may have read the reports of the investigation into the disease atj- 

 Augusta within the past few weeks, so that the}" may see the opinions 

 of other scientific men who are as eminent in the profession as those 

 of the extreme school that some of us have listened to there. !• 

 would like to ask if this disease is transmitted b}' heredity, and 1k>w? 



Dr. Cressey. Yes, it ma}' be. In fact, any infectious disease may 

 be transmitted by heredity when the germ exists within the parent 

 animal though not necessarilv sick, but the germ mav be transmitted 

 from the parent to the offspring, under favorable conditions. If the 

 mother has the disease and the calf is born with it, that is a case 

 of hereditary transmission. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. There is an old theory that we may transmit a 

 tendency, a weakening of the power to resist. 



Dr. Cressey. No matter what the hereditary tendency may be, 

 the disease cannot exist unless the germ has been transmitted. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. As a disease, I suppose? 



Dr. Cressey. No, the germ which causes the disease. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. Is it congenital? 



Dr. Cressey. An hereditary disease is congenital ; that is, comes 

 with birth. If it is hereditary the animal is born with it ; that is what 

 congenital means. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. How early can we detect it? 



Dr. Cressey. It will depend on where it is located. You might 

 have a hereditary condition that renders the animal liable to this dis- 

 ease, and yet may go through life in health, and to the butcher as 

 good beef. You mav also have the ingested form, where the disease 

 gets into the body by eating — as stated in my lecture. The lungs 

 in such cases will not be affected, but the animal will grow thin, 

 waste away and die with tahes inesenterica^ as a child may from tak- 

 ing tuberculous milk. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. The outward symptoms would be somewhat the 



same. 



15 



