226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Questioji. I would like to ask if there is an^- remed}' for an ani- 

 mal that is in the first stages of tuberculosis? 



Dr. Ckessey. No, nobody knows any remedy that will cure the 

 disease, although much has been done to ward it off. We might by 

 the use of antiseptics and tonics keep the animal alive for a few 

 years, but I do not suppose that the\' could be cured. 



Question. If a mother and sire are afflicted with tuberculosis, and 

 the offspring is removed from the mother at birth, so it sjets none of 

 the milk, would that animal be more likel}' to be afflicted with this 

 disease than a calf from health^' parents transferred to this diseased 

 cow and reared b}' her? 



Dr. Cressey. Yes, and I have a case in mind that will, perhaps, 

 throw some light on the subject. A gentleman in Connecticut had a 

 cow evidentl}' sick with tuberculosis. She dropped a calf, grew weak 

 and emaciated very rapidh' afterwards. We allowed the calf to 

 suckle from the mother for a week or ten days as an experiment. 

 The calf grew so poor, and had the diarrhoea so badl}' that it could 

 not stand and soon died, whether from the poor quality of milk I 

 could not sav, so I took a healthy calf from a native cow, and 

 allowed her to suckle from this sick cow, until the cow died soon 

 afterwards ; we killed the calf, and it showed marked signs of the 

 disease. That was brought about by diseased milk. 



This infected milk contains a substance which, when fed, will 

 produce tuberculosis. I do not wish to be misunderstood on this 

 point, for it is of no use to get up an outcry and thus injure the 

 State more than the destruction of a dozen such herds as that at 

 Orono. 



Question. Does this disease ever affect the udder? 



Dr. Cressey. Yes, we have what may be called the gargetty type 

 of the tuberculosis, producing a hardened condition, a gargetty 

 bunch up within the udder. 



Question. Please to describe a tubercle as we find it encj'sted in 

 the lung or in the udder? 



Dr. Cressey. I would like to sa}' one word as to definition. I 

 <see that not onh' you, but hundreds in the medical profession, have 

 gone astray on a single point. The noun tubercle can mean nothing 

 else than a little lump of tuberculous deposit within the tissues, 

 and when we use the collective term, "tubercles," we mean an}^ 

 mass or portion of that matter that is tuberculous ; and any matter 

 that is tuberculous has a cheesy product and a germ. A cheesy 

 product that has no germ is pseudo-tubercle and is as harmless as 



