No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 527 



during its removal from the carcass. This conclusion, it is evident, 

 is one of great practical importance, bearing directly on the question 

 of the condemnation of the meat of tuberculous cattle for human 

 consumption. And it is evident, also, that the infective properties 

 of meat might vary with different series of experiments ; . . . the 

 result depends on the care taken in guarding against contamina- 

 tion more than on anything else. The conclusion arrived at in 

 part explains the extremely divergent results obtained by previous 

 observers." 



The observations by Dr. Martin cannot altogether dispose of this 

 hypothesis, that the unexpected affirmative results obtained by his 

 feeding and inoculating experiments may have been due to the pres- 

 ence of unobserved tuberculous matter in the meat substance, possi- 

 bly in the actual muscular tissue ; but they certainly show another 

 and more obvious way in which these results may have been brought 

 about. To have demonstrated this extrinsic way of rendering dan- 

 gerous the meat substance of tuberculous animals, is to destroy all 

 evidence that might otherwise have been obtained respecting the 

 wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the proper meat substance 

 towards his test animals. 



We note, in passing, that this method of endangering the meat 

 substance could not have been detected upon carcasses from which 

 the organs, together with any " grapy " deposit, had been removed. 

 And it is pertinent to observe, in connection with a contamination so 

 effected, that this extrinsic danger to harmless meat (or to meat 

 that was, for all that is shown to the contrary, harmless) might 

 just as well be encountered by meat from another animal (whether 

 pig, sheep, or calf, ox or cow) that was perfectly free from tubercle, 

 but only had happened to be the next animal brought to the same 

 slaughterer. 



Having regard to Dr. Martin's invariable failure to produce tuber- 

 cular disease by feeding (though he sometimes did succeed by inocu- 

 lating) test animals with the meat taken by him from cows with mild 

 or moderate tuberculosis, and admitting his explanation of an affirm- 

 ative result, sometimes seen when meat was being taken from cattle 

 with advanced or generalized tubercle, we are prepared to believe 

 with him that, if sufficient discrimination and care were exercised in 

 taking meat from tuberculous cattle, a great deal of meat from them 

 might, without danger, be consumed by the community. The practice 

 of public abattoirs on the continent appears to be founded on the 

 same belief. 



Dr. Martin, having shown that tuberculous material may be thus 

 distributed through the carcass of an animal, and regarding the 



