494 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



effectiveness upon the intelligent assistance of the people. The 

 application of measures of disinfection and sanitation is neces- 

 sary if they are to be of value, and their application is a matter 

 of continued attention, rather than a spasmodic and irregular 

 affair. It therefore depends to a considerable extent upon the 

 fidelity of those who have the actual application in charge, after 

 the instructions have been given. General rules and regulations 

 are furnished localities according to which the department de- 

 sires any particular situation to be handled. The resources at our 

 command do not permit of close or long continued observation of 

 each individual case, and therefore, after having given the neces- 

 sary instructions the matter must be left in the hands of others 

 for further attention. For these reasons general discussions and 

 readings along this line are of much importance to the live stock 

 industry of Iowa. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



No other disease named in the catalogue of human ills has at- 

 tained the prominence in recent years that is accorded tubercu- 

 losis. It has spread with alarming rapidity, owing chiefly to the 

 multiplying points of contact with humanity in general, which 

 afford the opportunities required by an infectious disease for its 

 dissemination. 



Prior to the demonstration of its infectiousness by Villemin in 

 1865 and the discovery of its specific etiology as of parasitic origin 

 by Koch in 1882, very little of value has been learned respecting 

 the nature and cure of tuberculosis. The extensive ravages of the 

 disease have in recent years forced the question of checking it 

 into prominence and made it one of the leading sanitary problems 

 of the times. It is estimated that more than five million human 

 lives are annually destroyed by this plague. 



But this report deals primarily with tuberculosis as it is mani- 

 fested among live stock — cattle and hogs. It is with this phase of 

 the subject that our department has labored during the past period 

 although indirectly at least, its efforts bear upon the question of 

 public health. While it is true that the bacilli producing tubercu- 

 losis in all animals are not identical, as originally believed, yet 

 the transmissibility of bovine tuberculosis to the human, especially 

 to children, has been fully demonstrated. The literature on this 

 subject contains record of more than fifty cases in which the bovine 



