NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 351 
these cows to be affected with tuberculosis and they have been de- 
stroyed. It is quite reasonable to suppose that a much too large pro- 
portion of cows from which milk is sold by dairymen in the various 
cities and towns of the state are affected with tuberculosis. At 
present there is no law requiring them to be tested, there is no 
law requiring dairymen to make certain that their milk is from 
healthy cows, and only in exceptional cases has such a test been made 
and the affected cows elminated. 
Persons competent to form judgment on the subject are almost 
though not quite unanimous in the belief that tuberculosis cows are 
a very dangerous source and means for the transmission of the 
disease to human beings, and such being the case it is extremely de- 
sirable from the standpoint of public health that all milk for con- 
sumption as such shall be from cows known to be free from tuber- 
culosis. The tuberculin test is very simple and easy to apply, and 
repeated investigations have shown that as a means of diagnosis it 
is accurate more than ninety-eight times out of a hundred. 
The stories of egregious blunders mad by veterinarians with this 
test are either not true at all or very greatly exaggerated. In the 
hands of a competent man the tuberculin test is almost absolutely 
accurate, perfectly harmless to a healthy animal and its applica- 
tion is quite inexpensive. The danger of transmission of this 
disease by means of milk is so great and the means of knowing 
whether the animals are free from it are so easy that it seems al- 
most criminal not to require that milk sold at least in the cities 
where inspections are maintained shall be from cows free from the 
disease. 
It is quite evident that if such requirements were made in the 
particular cities named above that in order that such a requirement 
may be enforced, that either some state or municipal office be cre- 
ated, for the express purpose of enforcing it. A statute of this kind 
will not enforce itself and it will be wholly a dead letter unless it is 
made some official's business to continually visit farms upon which 
milk is produced and to keep track of the herds and practices of the 
various dairymen. 
It is also evident that if practices in the handling of milk, on the 
farm and at the dairy are to be much improved, there must be some 
form of inspection at these dairies and some definite form of cleanli- 
ness which must be enforced upon the dairymen by an official in- 
spector charged with this duty. The inspection now authorized 
by law and now carried out by this department comes far short of 
