EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 313 



inert. A word of caution at this point may be advantageous. This does not mean that 

 tuberculosis is less dangerous or contagious than supposed ; it merely points out the 

 possibility of an inert condition of the tubercle bacilli, a condition which has always 

 been regarded as possible. Further experiments along this line, we hope, will bring 

 us to a better understanding of this experiment. That the transmission of tuberculosis 

 from man to cattle and cattle to other animals has been sufficiently demonstrated, there 

 can be no manner of doubt. The corollary of this presents quite another question. 

 There is no indisputable proof or evidence. As an example of what evidence there is to 

 offer, I might be permitted to quote, — "The four-year-old grandson of Col. Henry B. 

 Beecher, of N. Broadway, died of tubercular meningitis. His physician says that the 

 disease undoubtedly originated in two fine Alderney cows, which Col. Beecher bought 

 last May. The child was perfectly healthy prior to the attack, and his parents on 

 both sides have no tubercular tendency. The cows, being suspected, were tested with 

 tuberculin, and reacted in the usual way." While such evidence as this has great 

 weight, it cannot be offered as direct proof ; yet it tends to establish the truth of the 

 problem that tuberculous contagion may be carried directly from animal to man. 

 The number of such cases is unlimited and if one will take the trouble to search litera- 

 ture, especially of a medical nature, he may convince himself. This evidence in 

 connection with the identit}^ of the tubercle bacillus and pathological lesions in both 

 animal and man is worthy of the gravest consideration in the absence of absolute proof. 



THE PREVALEIN-CE OF TUBERCULOSIS. 



In 1890 Dr. Arthur Ransome estimated the number of deaths annually from tubercu- 

 losis in the British Isles to be 70,000. Prof. Leyden in 1894 computed the number of 

 deaths in Germany to be 170,000 yearly. Dr. Charles Denison of Denver attributes 

 40 per cent of deaths between the ages of twenty and forty years in New York City 

 to tuberculosis. In tlie State of Michigan, between the years 1884 and 1893, there was 

 an average annual report of 2,140 deaths from consumption and 166 deaths from 

 tubercular diseases. This is believed to be not more than two-thirds of the deaths due 

 to this disease because of a failure to report. In the first six months of 1898 there were 

 1,329 deaths reported from tuberculosis in the State. Tuberculosis, according to sta- 

 tistics, produces more than twice as many deaths in our State as any other single 

 contagious disease. The following statement is made by Dr. George F. Keen of 

 Rhode Island: "This is a disease which has claimed more victims than all the wars 

 and all tiie plagues and scourges of the human race. Even during the few short years 

 since Koch's discovery, over two million persons on this continent have succumbed 

 to its fatal infection. In the last two decades, in Cincinnati, out of a total mortality of 

 119,089, there have been 17,353 deaths from this dread disease. The annual tribute 

 of the United States to this scourge is over 100,000 of its inhabitants. Each year 

 the world yields up 1,095,000; each day, 300; each minute, two of its people as a 

 sacrifice to this plague. Of the 70,000,000 individuals now peopling these United 

 States, 10,000,000 must inevitably die of this disease if the present ratio is kept up." 



In regard to the prevalence of this disease among animals, the following figures will 

 give some definite idea. In 1896, in the abattoir at Leipzig, Germany, 32 9-10 per cent 

 of the animals killed were found to be tuberculous. In Zwickau, 37 1-2 per cent were 

 tuberculous. At Hamburg, in 1895, 8 56-100 per cent were tuberculous. The sta- 

 tistics from the abattoir at Vienna, from 1893 to 1895, show a percentage of 1 79-100, 

 1 60-100. 1 30-100 per cent tuberculous. Un tbe oilier hand, in Austria, by the use 

 of the tuberculin test, the percentage runs as high as 39 84-100 and 43 per cent. In 

 Swit/.c-rhiiid, in the canton at Kribourg, of the animals dying or slaughtered, 12 14-100 

 per cent show tuberculosis. By the use of tuberculin the percentage in some cases runs 

 as high as 52V2 per cent. In the abattoir at Toulouse, France, 9 28-100 per cent of 

 the animals killed were found to be tul)eriulous. The tuberculin test in some jiarts 

 reaches 25 per cent. Of 19,004 cattle tested in Belgium in 1890, 48 8-10 per cent 

 reacted. The abattoir at Amsterdam, Holland, in 1896, showed a percentage of 8 12-100 

 tuberculous; in Rotterdam, 4 per cent. Of the animals slaughtered at Liverpool, 

 there was found 10 0-10 per cent tuberculous out of 4,321 milk cows. In the abattoir 

 at Manchester, 29 4-10 per cent were tuberculous. In Denmark, by the use of tubercu- 

 lin, 28 8-10 per cent have been found to be tuberculous in the year 1898. Of the 

 animals slaughtered in the abattoir at" Copenhagen in 1897, there were 26 87-100 per 

 cent tuberculous. Of 35,992 animals tested in Sweden by Svensson. 42 2-10 per cent 

 were found to be tuberculous. In Norway, of 30,787 animals tested, 8 4-10 per cent 

 were found to be tuberculous. In Massachusetts, in 1894, of 3,295 tested, 24 58-100 

 per cent reacted. In Pennsylvania, in 189G, of 10.000 tested, about 20 per cent reacted. 

 40 



