330 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



actually represented the true tuberculous virus. A disease, 

 therefore, that can be transmitted from one animal to another 

 by inoculation, and an identical virus be reproduced, is, 

 strictly speaking, contagious. 



Professor Chauveau of the Lyons Veterinary School also 

 proved, by his experiments, that cattle can be as readily 

 affected through the stomach or digestive organs as by any 

 other channel. He purchased four calves, the 18tli of Sep- 

 tember, from a locality where the disease was unknown ; 

 they were all in a fine, healthy condition. The next day he 

 administered tuberculous matter, from an old cow's lung, 

 prepared in the form of a drench, to three of them in divided 

 doses. The first one, a year old, began to lose condition in 

 about two weeks ; the respirations were quickened, appetite 

 remaining unimpaired. On the 5th of October gave another 

 dose, but of different and more recent matter ; and within 

 one week the symptoms of tuberculosis were apparent, — 

 emaciation proceeded rapidly, coat became rough and star- 

 ing, fits of coughing, etc. The second calf went on com- 

 paratively healthy for three weeks, then failed rapidly. 

 The third resisted the disease longer, and another drench 

 was given, the third week after which the tubercular symp- 

 toms developed rapidly. At the close of the experiments, 

 beginning September 19 and ending on the 10th of Novem- 

 ber, the miserable aspect of the three infet;ted calves, when 

 contrasted with the condition of the fourth, left no doubt of 

 the changes that had taken place. The post-mortem exami- 

 nations revealed a perfect generalized form of tul)erculosis, 

 — the morbid depo.'dts in the chest, the lungs studded with 

 tubercles varying in size from a pea to a filbert, the bronchial 

 glands, lesions of the bowels, etc. Thus, in the space of 

 about fifty days, we have these ty[)ical examples, nearly 

 uniform in appearance, of the artificial production of this 

 malady through the digestive organs. 



Dr. Orth insists, after many experiments, that the meat of 

 tuberculous animals is dangerous as an article of food, and 

 should never be used. Professor Otto Bollinger of the 

 University of Munich, by his investigations of milk of such 

 animals, claims that it has a permanently contagious infiu- 

 ence, and reproduces the disease in other animals or in man. ^ 



