XXIll PRESIDKNTIAL ADDRESS. 



terrible scourges. Are they greater scourges than tuberculosis ? 

 I think not, for although they sweep their victims off in a manner 

 which is seen by all there is not that vast deterioration and slow 

 but certain decimation of many of our best herds, the wholesale 

 destruction of human food, and the danger, as is now proved, to 

 human life and human comfort, and the insidious progress of 

 that fell destroyer, tuberculosis, the ravages of which are only 

 realised by those whose duties are connected with public abattoirs 

 and meat works, or are called upon to act as arbiters on the 

 nature of the disease. It is an extremely sad commentary on 

 these remarks that Prof. Walley himself has died from tubercu- 

 losis, acquired several years ago by inoculation in connection with 

 his profession. 



The more we know about tuberculosis, the more alarmed we 

 become at the appalling extent of this disease among cattle. In 

 Denmark alone, during the last five years. Bang has tested with 

 tuberculin upwards of 75,000 head of cattle, and of this number 

 no less than 29,775 (39*7 per cent.) Avere found to be affected 

 with tuberculosis, which will give a fair idea of what hold the 

 disease has on the cattle of Europe. 



Although x\ustralia and New Zealand are not so seriously 

 affected as the older countries of P^urope, the returns from the 

 abattoirs and meat works under Government veterinary inspec- 

 tion, an the results of occasional examinations with tuberculin on 

 stud and dairy cattle, show that the disease has obtained a foothold 

 in these colonies and is now causing considerable loss. When we 

 consider what marvellous results Bang has achieved during the 

 last five (5) years by means of the free application of tuberculin 

 test, in gradually eradicating tuberculosis from the dairy herds of 

 Denmark, and the decisive action taken in France, Germany 

 and America, and recently in Great Britain, in their endeavours 

 to stamp out tuberculosis, it is not unreasonable to ask the stock- 

 owners of Australia to work in harmony and co-operate in making 

 a desperate crusade against what is universally acknowledged to 

 be the most serious of all diseases in cattle — viz., tuberculosis — 

 in the first place by the free and constant use of tuberculin, and 

 secondly by using only that pleuro virus which has withstood the 

 bacteriological test. It is extremely gratifying to know that the 



