524 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



butcher, and to exclude organs and other tissues, we refer to it as 

 meat substance. We do not propose to consider, except incidentally, 

 carcasses from which the organs have been removed in such wise that, 

 the condition of them could not be known to us. 



We have now to point out the very great difference in one and 

 another part of a tuberculous animal in the amount of tuberculous 

 matter contained in the meat. This matter is found principally in the 

 organs of the animals ; as a rule, most abundantly in the lungs, lym- 

 phatic glands, serous membranes, but often in the liver, spleen, kid- 

 neys, intestines and other structures. These organs are usually 

 removed by the butcher in "dressing" the carcass, though some of 

 them may, intentionally or not, be left. To a practised eye it is 

 hardly possible that tuberculous matter in these organs can escape 

 detection, and the importance of its presence there will soon be 

 apparent; for in the tissues which go to form the butcher's " joint" 

 the material of tubercle is not often found, even where the organs 

 exhibit very advanced or generalized tuberculosis ; indeed, in muscle 

 and muscle juice it is very seldom that tubercle bacilli are to be met 

 with ; perhaps they are somewhat more often to be discovered in 

 bone, or in some small lymphatic gland imbedded in intermuscular 

 ' fat. Yet there is always a difficulty in making sure of the absence 

 of tuberculous matter from any part of a carcass that shows evidence 

 of tubercle elsewhere. 



In Dr. Martin's experiments for the detection of tuberculous mat- 

 ter three kinds of test were employed ; first, minute examination of 

 the part for tubercle, with the aid of the microscope, to discover 

 tubercle bacilli; secondly, feediug susceptible animals — test ani- 

 mals — with suspected matter ; and, thirdly, introducing into the 

 bodies of test animals some of the suspected matter by way of inocu- 

 lation, — a more delicate test than the process of feeding. 



Applying these tests to the meat substance of twenty-one cows 

 known to be tuberculous in one or another degree, he could not get 

 visible evidence of tubercle except in two instances, and there it was 

 of very small amount. He records the results of his other tests as 

 follows: "Of eight cows (mild tuberculosis), the meat of one gave 

 positive results in one animal from inoculation, none by feeding. Of 

 eight cows (moderate tuberculosis), the meat of three gave positive 

 results in four animals from inoculation, none by feeding. Of five 

 cows (generalized tuberculosis), four gave positive results either by 

 inoculation or by feeding," oue only out of the four appearing to 

 answer to both tests. 



The animals which had yielded affirmative results to his test of 

 minute examination were not among the last five ; they were in the 



