144 Kansas Academy of Science. 



duced to three sources : First, animals living beneath the same 

 roof can acquire it of each other. Cattle very seldom acquire 

 the disease from other cattle in the pasture or even in the open 

 feed-lot. Therefore, it is positively true that the disease is 

 never carried through the air from one farm to another. How- 

 ever, by a second method, hogs may acquire the disease from 

 tuberculous cattle by being turned into the feed-lot and eating 

 the manure. Manure is an organic nutritive substance which, 

 when first dropped, equals the body temperature and is favor- 

 able to the growth of the tuberculous germs. By a third 

 method, hogs may acquire tuberculosis from the milk of tuber- 

 culous cows on the same premises. Therefore, if hogs never 

 received any food, milk or manure, except that from the ani- 

 mals on the farm of the owner of the hogs, we would have an 

 index at the packing-houses slaughtering hogs to practically 

 every farm in this country having the tuberculous animals 

 upon them. Manure is seldom hauled from one farm to an- 

 other except for fertilizer. 



Now, here is the important point : An exceedingly good ani- 

 mal husbandman can prepare a hog ready for market at six 

 months of age ; and nearly every hog, except parents, going to 

 market is less than one year of age. Therefore, practically 

 every farm in this country, before one year from to-day, will 

 have sent one or more hogs to market. 



The beauty of these facts is that the bulk of hogs are 

 slaughtered in packing-houses where government veterinari- 

 ans make two thorough examinations for tuberculosis of every 

 hog killed. 



The natural result would be that if they knew the farm from 

 which every tuberculous hog came, we would, inside of one 

 short year, know every farm having dangerous tuberculous 

 animals upon it. The results would almost equal the tuberculin 

 test applied on every farm in the country. 



Human physicians advocate the registration of every tuber- 

 culous person and their place of habitation. Very recently I 

 publicly proposed a detailed plan for accomplishing this much- 

 desired result in animals. 



But does tuberculosis exist in many animals? 



The public animal reports of the government show that just 

 in packing-houses alone having United States inspection, 

 15,546 tuberculous animals were detected in 1901, 27,752 were 

 detected in 1902, and 81,179 were detected in 1903; and most 



