1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 331 



He believes also that such milk, even when boiled, still con- 

 tains its injurious properties. Fleming says, in his sanitary 

 police, that there is every reason to prohibit the use of milk 

 from cows affected with tuberculosis, and especially with 

 infants, who mainly rely upon this fluid for their sustenance, 

 and whose powers of absorption are active. It has been 

 known for a long time that it was liable to produce diarrhoea 

 and debility in infants ; and, though many children have 

 died from tuberculosis of a localized type in the bowels, 

 known as " tabes mesenterica," the part probably played by 

 this liquid in its production has rarely been suspected. 

 Professor Murray says tuberculosis is a constitutional con- 

 tagious disease, occurring most frequently among pedigreed 

 cattle, — a disease for which there is no cure. Such 

 diseased cattle should never be kept for breeding, and it is 

 dano-erous to use the milk for calves or human beino;s. 



Tuberculosis affects cattle also that are not pure-bred. 

 In the herd of cows at the State Primary School at Monson 

 three have died within the last six months, or were killed. 

 Post-mortems of two revealed tuberculosis in the severest or 

 last stages, with pus infiltrated throughout the lungs ; of the 

 third no examination was made, but it had all the symptoms, 

 — staring coat, poor in flesh, coughing, etc. She had been 

 turned to pasture with young stock, but grew so poor that 

 she had to be killed. Now the question comes as to the 

 balance of the herd of fifty or more cows, giving milk for 

 the hundreds of children at the school. How came these 

 cows to be affected with this disease ? One of them I learn 

 came from a herd near by, and from that herd milk is sold 

 from the cart in the village of Palmer daily, and has been 

 for years. Did it come from a cow that had been slaugh- 

 tered for beef some two or more years ago ? On opening 

 her, the pleura and other organs were studded all over with 

 nodules or warty excrescences, as they were called, in 

 countless numbers. The superintendent wisely ordered it 

 buried. 



Ought there not to he a thorough examination, by a 

 competent expert, of this herd ; and, if any of the cattle 

 belonging to the State (in this school) have thia disease, 

 should they not be killed at once ? These tuberculous cows 



