Bovine Tuberculosis iisr Its Relation to Man. 141 



bovine bacilli on the table to satisfy any ordinary craving, and 

 I have noted the health of those families, especially that of the 

 children, many of them having all their lives used the products 

 of herds largely infected, and I have not yet discovered a single 

 case of human consumption therefrom. It is axiomatic that if 

 transmission is common, or even possible, the farms where large 

 numbers of infected cattle are kept are the places where the fact 

 can be best observed; because nowhere else in the world is there 

 so much infective material, nowhere else are the bacilli so potent, 

 nowhere else are people so exposed to the danger, if any exists, 

 and at these places feeding and inhalation experiments so to 

 speak, are constantly going on; and you will bear in mind that 

 it is the mature cow that is oftenest affected, and it is from her 

 that the largest amount of milk, butter, etc., are used. A vast 

 amount of work has been done by scientists to demonstrate 

 whether milk from tuberculous cows whose udders were not dis- 

 eased contained bacilli, and it may be conceded that it does in 

 some cases; they are also present in milk frequently when such 

 milk is obtained from tuberculous udders. Sternberg, in his 

 Manual of Bacteriology, says: "A more common mode of infection, 

 especially in children, is probably by way of the intestinal glands 

 from the ingestion of milk from tuberculous cows. That infec- 

 tion may occur by way of the intestine has been proved by ex- 

 periments upon rabbits, which developed tuberculosis when fed 

 upon tuberculous sputum." This is the sill in the doorway of 

 investigation over which many a bright man has fallen. It is 

 assumed that the infant will do exactly that which rabbits and 

 guniea-pigs have done. All the evidence I have thus far collected 

 indicates that it does nothing of the kind. Physicians as a rule 

 are not familiar with the conditions surrounding a tuberculous 

 herd, hence I have deemed it necessary to show you one in 

 imagination that you may the better understand the facts. 



Tuberculous Herd at Home. — Picture in your mind 200 cattle in 

 elegant buildings of the immense size necessary to house such a 

 family — electric light, proper ventilation, pure water, mountain 

 air, drainage and plumbing up to date, strictest cleanliness, the 



