374 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



from the use of the milk of tuberculous cows. The results 

 of these experiments were made known to the Legislature 

 of 1891, as were also the discoveries of other scientists in 

 our own and in foreign countries. In view of the results of 

 the experiments obtained at such large expense, the State 

 Board of Agriculture believes that any further experiments 

 and investigations that could possibly be made with the sum 

 appropriated (twenty-five hundred dollars) could throw 

 very little light upon the subject. For this reason no 

 expense has been incurred. That there is danger to human 

 life and health in the food products of cattle affected by this 

 disease, seems to be a proved fact. There is also danger to 

 the life and health of our domestic animals, arising from 

 the presence of these diseased animals among them. How 

 great the danger is, depends on the proportion which the 

 number of tuberculous animals bears to the number of those 

 in health. It must not be forgotten that the danger to life 

 and health is not alone from food products. Many investi- 

 gators believe that the greatest danger is from the germs of 

 the disease floating in the air. These germs come from the 

 dried sputa reduced to a powder. The same danger arises 

 from the presence of human beings affected with the disease. 

 Many alarmists have stated that the proportion of tubercu- 

 lous cattle is very large, — some place it as high as twenty- 

 five per cent of the whole number in our State. However, 

 careful estimates from all sources of information show that 

 the percentage of tuberculous animals is very much less 

 than that figure, probably not more than three or four 

 per cent. It is known that the cattle of all countries 

 are subject to this disease, and have been so subject for 

 thousands of years ; but it is only recently that it has been 

 recognized as the same as consumption in man. It is not 

 believed that the proportion of affected cattle in Massachu- 

 setts is much greater than in other thickly populated 

 countries. 



Second. How best to protect the public against the dan- 

 ger to human life and health, arising from the presence of 

 tuberculosis in the food products of cattle. As there is 

 danger, it is highly proper that the Legislature should pro- 

 vide for reducing the danger to a minimum. The trade 



