TUBERCULOSIS. 363 



conditions and induce better health and, hence, greater resist- 

 ing powers. There is little doubt that in a majority of cases 

 the cattle need more air. Too many are crowded together in 

 a small space in the winter season, and there is too little venti- 

 lation of the cow stalls. The treatment of the animals in the 

 winter is doubtless responsible for most of the tuberculosis. 

 In the attempt to keep animals warm, they have been too 

 closely shut up in badly ventilated rooms, and the warm air 

 is breathed over and over again by them. Such a condition, 

 wholly independent of the tubercle bacilli which might be 

 present, has a debilitating effect upon cattle, just as it would 

 on men. Too frequently, even on the better farms, the cattle 

 are shut up in the stalls early in the fall, are not allowed to 

 go out during the long months of the winter, and never get 

 a breath of fresh air. Sometimes the case is even worse than 

 this, for many cows are thus shut up as soon as they begin to 

 produce milk, and, winter and summer alike, remain in close, 

 poorly ventilated rooms. To protect his cattle from cold the 

 farmer makes his cow barn too warm and allows it too little 

 air. To save trouble he keeps them housed all the time, 

 with no out-of-door air ; and to save expense he crowds them 

 together in the smallest amount of space. These facts lie at 

 the foundation of the large amount of tuberculosis in the 

 colder countries. Warm rooms and a close crowding of the 

 animals may result in a saving of food, but it invites the spread 

 of tuberculosis, if it once gains access to a single animal. In 

 the human race it is well known that the best protection 

 against the disease, and the best remedy for it after it has once 

 started, is out-of-door life. Doubtless the same is true of 

 cattle, but this fact has been almost forgotten in the attempt 

 to produce the most milk possible at the smallest expense. 

 The farmer may perhaps insist that such crowded conditions 

 are necessary and unavoidable in the modern farm, but he 

 must also remember that, whether necessary or not, they are 





