540 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.. [Pub. Doc. 



mau and the lower animals ; and whereas, scientific experimentation 

 has demonstrated the possibility of transmitting the disease through 

 the dairy and other animal products from tuberculous animals ; and 

 whereas, the extensive use of tuberculin as a diagnostic agent has 

 thoroughly demonstrated its high value for that purpose, further be it 



Resolved, That, in the judgment of the United States Veterinary 

 Medical Association, it is the duty of sanitary boards and other health 

 officers to employ all practical methods calculated to restrict this 

 disease. 



Resolved, That we regard the tuberculin test as the only reliable 

 means now known to the scientific world for detecting obscure cases 

 of tuberculosis in the living subject, and that it is a reliable test when 

 performed under proper and well-known necessary conditions. 



It is further Resolved, That reliance upon the physical examination 

 of animals for the existence of tuberculosis is unwise and unwar- 

 ranted in the present day. 



Prof. H. D. Gill, veterinarian to the New York City Board 

 of Health, in a recent paper read before the section of public 

 health of the New York Academy of Medicine, November 8, 

 stated, among other things, as follows : — 



The identity of bovine and human tuberculosis being placed beyond 

 doubt by the numerous examples of contagion, by a similarity in the 

 anatomical alterations of these diseases, and by the existence in both 

 of the same specific bacillus, the question of consumption of the milk 

 of tuberculous animals becomes of the greatest importance from the 

 stand point of public hygiene. How widespread it is can be learned, 

 in my opinion, only when every animal has been subjected to the 

 tuberculin test ; and until such investigation has been made, the only 

 safeguard for the milk supply of New York is limitation to that com- 

 ing from herds which have been so tested. Too great emphasis can 

 hardly be laid on the clearly demonstrated fact that tuberculosis may 

 exist in cattle when they present absolutely no clinical symptoms of 

 disease. Danger is not to be especially looked for when an animal 

 presents the classical symptoms of emaciation, cough, etc. It is 

 when tbe animal is in good flesh, has a healthy skin, and nevertheless 

 has one or more foci of disease. 



Turning now from the opinions as expressed by boards and 

 authorities throughout the United States, some of which have 

 been above quoted, we find that the same experience has been 

 met abroad. At the last European Veterinary Congress, as- 



