230 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



the process. All muscles' distant from the primary seat of 

 infection were found free from tubercle and tubercle-bacilli. 



The disease known as tubercvilosis is at once one of the most interesting and 

 th© most important of all the numerous maladies which affect mankind. As 

 yet, we may say, but little is known concerning the causes of the occurrence of 

 tuberculosis, and concerning the therapeutic methods by means of which the 

 insidious ravages of the tubercle-bacilli can be arrested. Nevertheless, of late 

 years we have acquired the power and the knowledge which are needed for a 

 much more far-reaching investigation of this disease, and all other diseases, than 

 men have heretofore found to be possible. Those of our readers who are most 

 fully aware of the truly terrible dangers connected with the disease which we 

 are now considering will also be those who will most clearly realise the pressing 

 necessity which exists for grappling with this subject in all its bearings, and 

 the need for finding out, in regard to it, all that can possibly, by any human 

 skill and research, be learnt. Indeed, tuberculosis is an awful disease, and we 

 may all well pray most, earnestly that we may escape from such insidious 

 dangers. 



As we have said, we now, in these days, know a great deal more about tuber- 

 culosis than was known some few years ago. At least, several facts and 

 inferences may be adduced as the results of recent investigation. Of these, 

 perhaps, the most important is that milk should not be drunk without having 

 previously been boiled, on account of the liability of its being a means of pro- 

 pagating various diseases, such as tuberculosis. There is but very little doubt 

 that the malady is, in large measure, propagated by the medium of milk, which 

 fluid is also in many cases responsible for the transmission of other diseases of 

 hnman beings, such as scarlet-fever, diphtheria, typhoid-fever, and so forth. 

 Milk ought always to be boiled, since it is probably as dangerous to drink milk 

 which has not been boiled as it is to eat meat which has not been cooked. 



There is also another point to which we have above drawn attention in due 

 course, and that is — that the gas ozone possesses a powerful destructive 

 influence over the bacilli of this dreadful malady. As M. Chauveau has pointed 

 out, we must now fully recognise the grave possibilities of the transmission of 

 tuberculosis from animals to human beings by means of the consumption of the 

 milk and the flesh of tuberculous animals. We read in that valuable Review of 

 Medicine and Surgery, the Lancet, of September 1st, 1888, that the Congress at 

 Paris recommended the seizure and desti-nction of the flesh of every tubercular 

 beast, no matter what its appearance may be. All persons ought to be aware 

 of the risks connected with the meat and the milk of tuberculous cattle, and of 

 the measures which ought to be taken with a view to the disinfection of materials 

 derived from people who suffer from tuberculosis. Dairies and dairy-farms 

 ought to be rigidly inspected at regular intervals. Experiments have proved 

 that animals fed upon tubercular flesh, or inoculated with the virus in any other 

 way, do become victims to the disease. 



Thorough cooking would doubtless be a safeguard. Several members of the 

 Congress expressed the opinion that the State should indemnify farmers for the 

 losses which they would sustain if the stamping -out method should be adopted 

 in the case of a disease so commonly met with as is bovine tuberculosis. 



Another point is that the question of being infected or not infected frequently 

 seems to depend upon the general state of health. 



If, then, it be true, as undoubtedly it seems to be, that this question is 

 determined by the state of health of the animal, we must realise how very 

 important it is to preserve our health properly in as thorough a manner as may 



