BoVIiVE TuBEKCULOSIS IN" ItS RELATION TO ]\lA]Sr. 135 



diseased animals. The cases reported and quoted by writers are 

 not supported by evidence of such transmission, and as we pro- 

 ceed it becomes more apparent that evidence had to be manu- 

 factured, the natural output being wholly inadequate to the needs 

 of the advocates of that theory. About 20 years ago I wrote 

 articles on bovine tuberculosis for newspapers and live-stock 

 journals, and called attention to the possibility of its transmis- 

 sion to the human. That the disease rapidly spread among cattle 

 by infection was pointed out. The advice given then is equally 

 applicable now — viz., that cattle owners should have their herds 

 inspected; that the diseased ones should be isolated; those that 

 are physically bad should be killed. Disinfection was ad- 

 vised for stables, etc. In 1885, after killing two thousand dol- 

 lars' worth of cattle in another state with the owner's consent, 

 there being no law to compel slaughter in any state at that time, 

 I gave the Albany Argus a column article on Animal Diseases 

 and their Relation to the Public Health, and on the subject of 

 tuberculosis, said: " How much of the prevalence of human tuber- 

 culosis may be due to milk and beef from tuberculous cattle is 

 a question yet to be determined, and is a serious one indeed." 

 Therefore, the position I now take after having warned the public 

 many years ago, and frequently since, to use all possible care to 

 prevent the transmission of tuberculosis from cattle to man, is 

 arrived at from a vast experience with the disease in cattle in 

 England, Canada, and the Eastern and Middle States, and from 

 a study of the people most exposed to any infection that might 

 be possible from such animals. 



Bacilli in Human and Bovine. — Charles Darwin says that man 

 has given rise to many races, some of which are so different that 

 they have often been ranked by naturalists as distinct species. 

 The races differ in constitution, in acclimatization, and in liability 

 to certain diseases. On these same principles micro-organisms 

 are very much modified by the conditions surrounding them. 

 Sternberg, in his Manual of Bacteriology, states that the tubercle 

 bacillus is a strict parasite, and its biological characters are such 

 that it could scarcely find natural conditions outside of the bodies 



