16 



"Mr. W., June 15, 1878, called me to see a white and red cow. Coughs and is 

 short of breath and wheezes. Pulse 60 ; respiration 14, and heavy at the flanks; 

 temperature 104". Diminished resonance of right lung, but increased in part of 

 the same. Emphysematous crackling over left lifng and dulness on percussion. 

 Diagnosed a case of tuberculosis and advised the destruction of the iinimal. 



" Dec. 12. Cow in a cold rain a few days ago for about two hours Milk still 

 more diminishe 1 than at a visit made on September 25th. Again advised the 

 destruction of the cow. Family still using the milk. Respiration 20 ; pulse 85 ; 

 temperature 104.6°. 



" Fe6. 22, 1879. Temperature 104.8"; respiration 26; pulse 68. Losing flesh 

 fast. Milk still in small quantities. Advised, as before, to destroj' the animal and 

 not to use tnilk. 



" May 30. Called in a hurry to see cow. Is now as poor as could be. No milk 

 for a week. Pulse 80; respiration 40; temperature 106''. The cow died in about 

 three hours. Autopsy made fourteen hours after death : Lungs infiltrated with 

 tuberculosis deposit. Weight of thoracic viscera 43.5 pounds. Tuberculous 

 deposits found in the mediastinum, in the muscular tissues, and in the mesentery, 

 spleen, kidneys, udder, intestines, pleura, and one deposit on the tongue. The in- 

 side of the trachea was covered with small tubercles. 



'•In August, 1879, the baby was taken sick, and died in about seven weeks. 

 On post-mortem of the child there was found meningeal tuberculosis — deposits all 

 over the coverings of the brain and some in the lung. 



" In 1881 a child, about three years old, died with, as it was called, tuberculous 

 bronchitis. And in 1886, a boy, nine years old, who for three or four years had 

 been delicate, died with consumption — ' quick,' as it was called. 



" So far as known, the family on both sides have never before had any trouble 

 of the kind, and the parents were both rugged and healthy people, and so were the 

 grandparents — one now being aliv-^ and sixty-eight years old, and the other dead 

 at seventy-eight." 



Of course there is much room for criticism, if tliese cases be quoted 

 as carrying out an exact clinical experiment, and no one can say that 

 the occurrence of the three deaths in the same family was anything 

 more than a coincidence. At the same time it must be acknov^ledged 

 that they offer very solid suggestions for consideration, jind that the 

 light thrown upon the disease by the investigations of recent years 

 makes the advice of the veterinarian to "• kill the covi^ and stop using 

 the milk " much more sound than it appeared to the minds of the 

 medical gentlemen who " laughed " at him at the time it was given. 



It is my hope within the coming year to collect a series of clinical 

 observations which will be of interest and some service in elucidating 

 the question of how many cases of tuberculosis occur wliich produce 

 suspicion in the-minds of medical or veterinary attendants of having 

 an origin in the milk from infectious cows. 



It is upon this question of pus.^ible danger from the domestic 

 animals — especially cattle — that much recent work has been done, 

 but the subject has been by no means exhausted. 



If there is danger to human beings from the wide spread existence 

 of tuberculosis among cattle, some sort of restrictive measures must 

 be taken, by means of which this danger can be lessened. At tlie 

 same time legislation calling for so much pecuniary loss as would be 

 the case if the present supply of tuberculous cattle were to be 



