12 



determine the portal of entrance by what appears post-mortem 

 to be the oldest lesions. It has further been proven — by Baum- 

 garten, twenty years ago — that the tubercle bacillus can penetrate 

 the mucous membrane of the intestine and reach the lung without 

 causing lesions at the point of entrance." 



Prof. Wedin's paper is, therefore, of importance only as illus- 

 trating the kind of reasoning which has led to so much error on 

 this question in the past. 



In straight contrast to this is a paper by Dr. A. P. Mitchell 

 (British Med. Journal, Jan., 1914), covering the examination of 

 the cervical glands of 72 scrofulous children under 12 years of 

 age. He summarizes his results as follows : 

 0-8 years — human, 4; bovine, 30. 

 5-12 years — human, 3; bovine, 35. 

 And adds that 84 per cent, of the cases two years old or under 

 were fed on unsterilized cow's milk. "This," says Dr. Ravenel, 

 ''illustrates strikingly that in addition to the deaths caused in 

 children by the bovine tubercle bacillus, a very large percentage 

 of the tuberculous deformities also come from the same source." 



The importance of bovine tuberculosis must therefore be con- 

 sidered a factor of immense importance in so far as public health 

 is concerned, and as pasteurization alone has been found impos- 

 sible of enforcement, our efforts must be bent on suppression 

 and eradication of the source of infection. 



Tuberculin Testing of Dairy Cattle in the City and County of 

 Honolulu and in the Territory. 



The past year did not prove favorable to the work of eradicat- 

 ing bovine tuberculosis, as undertaken and adhered to by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Forestry since 1910. 



By the end of 1914 a point had been reached which seemed to 

 justify our hopes that complete eradication, at least in so far as 

 the island of Oahu was concerned, was within reach. The num- 

 ber of reacting animals had been reduced to nearly 2 per cent, 

 from more than 30 per cent., and with the removal of these last 

 reactors to the slaughter house and the disinfection of the prem- 

 ises where they had been kept, it was believed that the time had 

 come when complete eradication might be accelerated by encour- 

 aging those dairymen who still had the infection in their herds, to 

 closer cooperation with the Board of Agriculture and Forestry 

 by obtaining financial support from the legislature then shortly to 

 convene. With this end in view, a bill providing for the in- 

 demnification of owners of tuberculous cattle was prepared and 

 introduced, and it is believed was favorably received and prom- 

 ised support to the extent of $10,000. This sum would have been 

 sufficient to greatly relieve the few dairy owners whom it was 

 thought still had any considerable number of diseased animals 

 in their stables. But, to the surprise of everybody concerned, 

 the bill was killed in committee by the very people for the benefit 



