308 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



TUBERCULOSIS AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 



KV C. K. MAKSllAl.l-. 



Bulletin 184. — BacterioloKical Departme.it. 



In dealing with a subject of this nature, the antliov is cognizant of the obstacles^ 

 which obstruct the way to a satisfactory and definite understanding of the present 

 attitude toward bovine tuberculosis. The scientific facts established in the study of 

 this dreaded white plague are exceedingly numerous and the literature has become so 

 widely disseminated and so voluminous that a further discussion seems hardly neces- 

 sary.' llov.evcr, owing to the accuiiuilation of scientific data and to the abundance 

 of iiterature, this subject becomes more intricate and a fair presentation more difficult. 



This station, in its work with tuberculosis, has endeavored to pick out those 

 important factors of the disease, to verify them, and to present them in such a manner 

 as to yield direct and beneficial results to stock-growers. .Scarcely any effort has been 

 made to follow out original lines of research because of many difficulties in the way 

 which must be surmounted before any success could result in this direction. 



What has given the ill-taste in the matter of tuberculosis (we know such to exist 

 with many) comes from that chiss of hyper-enthusiasts and reading-scientists who 

 take the experiinental bread from the mouth of the experimenter and chew it and 

 digest it according to their own individual methods of handling pabulum. It is 

 essential to base our conclusions upon facts derived from experiments or those 

 derived from practice, if we would reach healthful ideas concerning this topic. Opin- 

 ion and prejudice, unless well founded upon the foregoing, should play no part in the 

 formation of judgment. Unfortunately, there is perhaps no subject that is so unfairly 

 treated, so mutilated, so distorted without substantial proof, as is tuberculosis. 



No experimenter claims that an ultimate and safe judgment may be formed in 

 dealing with this disease at the present time. There is still nnich to determine and 

 learn. cs])ccially in the management of this disease, which can come only througli 

 years of actual experience. This is borne out by tlie enactment of many laws which 

 have been proved inefficient in checking this disease. If once the importance of this 

 disease can be impressed upon every stock-grower and the facts of the disease furnished 

 him, education will be worth far more than drastic legislation. 



WHAT IS TUBERCXJLOSIS .^ 



Put aside all general notions of this disease such as may be formed from an acquaint- 

 ance with scrofula, tabes. hydroce])halus and other forms, and confine the attention 

 for the present to conditions found in a tuberculous body. This disease is recognized 

 by tubercles or nodules sometimes pearly white, sometimes of a whitish yellow and 

 sometimes of a reddish color. All sizes of tubercles appear, from those which require 

 the aid of a microscope to discern, to those several inches in diameter. At first they 

 are hard and fibrous but eventually become more pliable to the touch and may become 

 gritty or calcareous from deposits of lime salts. Cut the small tubercle open and it 

 appears to be of the same consistency throughout, cut a large tubercle open and the 

 interior may be broken down into a yellowish white, creamy mass, and cut an old 

 tubercle open and it is likely to resemble hardened and dried pus of long standing, 

 yellow and A-ery gravel-like to the edge of a knife. These three stages, the young 

 firm fibrous nodule, the creamy pus deposit in the center with an outer fibrous coating, 

 and the calcareous deposit, with its firm outer coating — represent only landmarks with 

 all degrees of development and disintegration between. The pus may become of a cheesy 

 consistency, then we get the caseated tubercle, or of a calcareous consistency, then 

 we have the calcareous tubercle. Such are the nodules or tubercles which constitute 



