Chapple. — On Tuberculosis in Man and Animals. 529 



The question of the degree of infective power of the tissues 

 of an animal with only a local tuberculosis — for instance, 

 diseased glands — is still unsettled, and forms the subject of a 

 Eoyal Commission of the House of Commons now investi- 

 gating the matter ; but the Public Health Acts in England 

 and Scotland assume that where a local tuberculous centre 

 exists any and all of the body-tissues are infective. Of these 

 tissues milk is by far the most dangerous, for it is used in the 

 raw state, and most largely by children, who are susceptible 

 to the disease in all its forms ; and the frequency with which 

 tuberculous symptoms manifest themselves soon after weaning 

 has been urged as evidence of infection by milk. 



It is certain, and is universally admitted, that a large 

 amount of tuberculous disease is communicated to children by 

 infected meat and milk, and the Health Acts of Britain are 

 built upon this knowledge. Quite recently a butcher in the 

 South of England was fined £30 and £7 costs for exposing 

 meat from a diseased beast for sale. The penalties for this 

 offence under all up-to-date Health Acts are very severe, and 

 rightly so, for no one knows better than a butcher when he is 

 dealing with infected meat, for every slaughter is a post- 

 mortem examination, and every butcher is, or ought to be, 

 familiar with the indications of disease. 



So well recognised ixi Britain is the infectiousness of tuber- 

 culosis that at the annual Congress of the British Institute of 

 Public Health, held in Edinburgh last month, Dr. G. E. 

 Squire, of London, read a paper entitled " Should Pulmonary 

 Consumption be included in the Notification Act?" in which 

 he urged that this step is necessary to control the spread of 

 this disease, and was supported in his contention by many 

 distinguished health officers. 



Amongst cattle themselves grass very readily gets infected 

 by expectoration, discharge, and excreta, and the communi- 

 cability amongst stock is very marked, and manifest to all 

 breeders. About two years ago, when spending a short holi- 

 day in Taranaki, I was induced by my friend Mr. York, of the 

 Hawera Star, to examine several young cattle said to be 

 "wasters" — a name given by the farmers to those animals 

 that, for no obvious reason, suddenly began to waste away, 

 and to eventually die. There was absolutely no evidence of 

 disease upon a casual examination of three two-year olds I 

 specially examined ; they simply looked ill-fed and half- 

 starved. I was assured that they had come from good pad- 

 docks, that their fellows were sleek and fat, and that from 

 past experience these young beasts were doomed to waste 

 away and die. A butcher dissected up these animals for me, 

 and I found that, though all the other organs were apparently 

 healthy, the intestines, on being opened, were studded with 

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