THE SANITARY 



Board of Health of Montclair, N. J., in 1907, which 

 specified that the milk from reacting cows should be 

 excluded from the local milk supply. The test was 

 opposed by a large dairy company and the case was 

 contested through the courts until a complete victory 

 was won by the Board of Health. The decision has 

 been supported in other cases, so that the legal status 

 of the test is now secure. 



The amount of tuberculosis among cattle varies. Some 

 idea of the relative numbers of reactors which may be 

 found by the tuberculin test may be had from the ex- 

 perience of Montclair when its ordinance went into 

 effect in 1907: 



Of the New Jersey cows that had not been previously 

 tested, 25 per cent reacted. Many of the figures that are 

 available on the subject . . . relate to suspected or picked 

 herds, whereas the percentage of reactions above mentioned 

 represents conditions of herds taken practically at random 

 over a considerable area, with the exceptions that they had 

 more than the average veterinary inspection, and that they 

 had been stabled under good conditions. 23 



In individual herds as many as a half or even three- 

 quarters of the animals may react. The suppression 

 of bovine tuberculosis by scientific methods is, apart 

 from milk sanitation, an important object of animal 

 husbandry. 



In the elimination of tuberculosis from dairy herds 

 a serious economic question arises. Drastic measures 

 will result in a great diminution in the herds, a large 

 financial loss to the dairymen, and a corresponding 

 lessening in the milk supply with a resultant increase 



