170 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



as dangerous when the extended lesions implied an infection of the 

 blood; when, for example, from primary deposits elsewhere there are 

 resulting tubercles in lungs or pleura). Zundel, basing his opinion on 

 the failure of Koch to find the bacillus in any part save in the tubercu- 

 lar centers, concludes that no meat should be condemned except that 

 furnished by animals emaciated and thoroughly infected. 



That measures protective of the public health should be taken is in- 

 disputable. The demands of those who demanded new experiments 

 have now been realized. The ex[)eriments demanded have been re- 

 peated, and when practiced with all needful precautions have given posi- 

 tive results. The bacillus of tuberculosis has been isolated, cultivated, 

 and transmitted by inoculation, and whatever the soil from which it 

 has been transplanted (man, animals, gelatine preparations, «&c.), it has 

 always determined the development of true tuberculosis in the inocu- 

 lated animals, and this tuberculosis has proved transmissible from one 

 inoculated animal to another. Tuberculous meat is certainly infecting. 

 How, then, can we protect the community against its effects'? One 

 says : by thorough cooking ; another, by confiscating the diseased meat. 



While the boiling temperainre is destructive of the tuberculous bacil- 

 lus we cannot rely on meat being heated to this temperature. In North 

 and Middle German}- people continue to eat raw meat, notwithstanding 

 the frequent outbreaks of tuberculosis. Again, in ordinary cooking 

 the center of the meat often remains below 212° F., the color of the 

 blood indeed frequently persists. The proposal to sell this meat only 

 in separate stalls at a low price, so that the purchasers would be warned 

 to cook it thoroughly, would be inetiectual, as it would not change the 

 general habit of cooking, and above all it would furnish no safeguard 

 against its careless iireparation in public institutions and elsewhere 

 where it is used on a large scale. 



Confiscation, applied to all cases, would be far more effectual, and 

 with competent inspectors this could be carried out; but in practice it 

 is surrounded by numerous dififlculties. Diagnosis is easy, and with a 

 single municipal abattoir all cases should be detected, but it is found 

 that all the infected do not come to such abattoirs. In Baden 20 per 

 cent, of these are killed elsewhere. An attempt to apply the law 

 stringently in Mannheim resulted in an organized eflbrt to thwart the 

 officers of justice. Stock owners refused to sell to the city butchers un- 

 less relieved of all responsibility as to the soundness of the animals, and 

 the butchers declined to use the city abattoir and insisted on handling 

 only dead meat which had been killed outside. The opposition even 

 extended to the consumers, on whom the price had been raised, and the 

 vigorous measures were finally abandoned. 



If the difficulty is met by inspection of herds a considerable expense 

 will be inciurred and other objections invoked. In short, a sound public 

 spirit is essential to the maintenance of any really ettective work. 



Another difficulty arises from the degree of infection. If all tubercu- 



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