TUBERCULOSIS. 375 



unless he is willing to adopt thorough measures. For this 

 reason any legislative attempt to introduce measures looking 

 toward the improvement of the farmer's herds will be totally 

 futile. Legislature cannot enforce such measures as promise 

 satisfactory results. The success must depend upon the indi- 

 vidual farmer. Isolation is a means which the farmer may 

 adopt if he finds the disease in his herd, but it is nothing that 

 can by any legislature be forced upon him. 



THE USE OF FLESH AND MILK FROM TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 



It is not easy to give any rules which shall be at the same 

 time safe and practical in regard to the use of the products 

 obtained from tuberculous animals. The essential facts which 

 must control our decisions in the matter are as follows : 



Flesh. Tubercular matter from animals when fed to other 

 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 cook- 

 ing will destroy the bacteria, but even the moderate cooking 

 which meat commonly receives, is sufficient to destroy the 

 bacteria upon its surface, although the heat does not extend to 

 the interior. Inasmuch as flesh is rarely the seat of the tuber- 

 cular infection, and accidental contamination with the butcher's 



