FLESH AND MILK FROM TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 277 
Preventive Inoculation. In recent years claims have been 
made that a method of preventive inoculation against this disease 
has been found by using dried human tubercle bacilli for rendering 
cattle immune. Considerable data have been collected as to the 
success of this method, and it seems pretty certain that a considerable 
degree of immunity can thus be given to cattle. It is yet too early 
to say, however, whether this procedure will ever be a practical 
method of handling the tuberculosis problem. 
THE USE OF FLESH AND MILK FROM 
TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 
The practical question of the disposal of milk and flesh from 
tuberculous animals is constantly arising. The answer is clearly 
dependent upon whether the disease in men and animals is the 
same. Since it is generally agreed that, if not the same, the two are so 
nearly alike that they may be transmitted from one to the other, it 
is the concensus of all that the possibility of transference through 
flesh or milk should be guarded against. 
Flesh. Tubercular matter when fed to susceptible animals 
may produce the disease in the animal experimented upon. From 
this it follows that, if the human and bovine tuberculosis are the 
same disease, mankind may be exposed to danger from eating the 
flesh of tuberculous cattle. But there is no danger unless there 
are tubercle bacilli in the part eaten. The tuberculous infection 
of cattle is commonly in the lungs, intestines or lymphatic glands, 
and only rarely are the muscles affected. 
If an animal has simply a tuberculous lymphatic gland, its 
muscles are perfectly safe eating, unless they may have become 
infected by the knife of the butcher which has previously cut 
through some tuberculous mass in the animal. The danger to 
man from eating tuberculous flesh is therefore slight. Further, 
flesh is commonly cooked before it is eaten. Thorough cooking 
will destroy the bacteria, but even the moderate cookin'g which 
meat commonly receives is sufficient to destroy the bacteria upon 
its surface, although the heat does not extend to the interior. 
