No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 505 



carried on under conditions incompatible with efficiency, besides 

 other disadvantages and risks to health which lie beyond the scope 

 of our reference. 



With regard to the milk supply they report : — 



Whatever degree of danger may be incurred by the consumption 

 of the llesh of tuberculous animals (and we have already stated 

 our belief that the tendency in this country has been rather to ex- 

 aggerate than to underrate it) , there can be little doubt that the 

 corresponding danger in respect to milk supply is a far greater one. 



Then they say further : — 



It has been proved to our satisfaction, from the returns of 

 medical officers of health and meat inspectors, that tuberculosis 

 prevails to a larger extent among dairy stock than in any other 

 class of animal. Considerable difference of opinion exists among 

 experts as to the extent to which a cow may be affected with 

 tuberculosis without rendering her milk dangerous. It was not 

 proved to our satisfaction that tubercle bacilli had ever been 

 detected in milk, unless drawn from a cow with tuberculosis of 

 the mammary gland. In that case the disease generally, but not 

 always, manifests itself by external signs, and the udder is 

 suspected to be tuberculous. It is obvious, we think, that milk 

 drawn from such a source ought to render him who exposes it for 

 sale liable to heavy penalties. But there is no power at present 

 to prevent such milk being sold. Professor McFadyean told us 

 that, in a sample of milk from a diseased udder submitted to him 

 for diagnosis, he had no difficulty in detecting tubercle bacilli ; 

 yet the milk from that cow continued to be sent in for sale in a 

 neighboring city. Unfortunately, tuberculosis of the udder can 

 rarely be differentiated from other forms of udder disease by the 

 ordinary stock owner or dairyman, and hence all udder diseases 

 should be forthwith notified to the local authority. 



The opinion quoted by the first Commission on Tuber- 

 culosis (1894) is then recalled to the effect that: — 



"The spread of tubercle in the udder" is apt to proceed with 

 rapidity, that it may be manifested and become distinctly de- 

 veloped " between fortnightly inspections carried on along with a 

 veterinary surgeou," and that " the very absence of any definite 

 sign in the earlier stage is one of the greatest dangers of this 

 condition." And, having regard to these circumstances, the 



