490 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



widely infected with it ; and steps should be taken to reduce 

 it to a minimum in a reasonable and economical manner, in 

 order that the public at large may receive milk as far as pos- 

 sible from healthy animals, and the farmers be protected 

 from pecuniary loss. 



The disposal of the carcasses of diseased animals is an 

 important matter. Sections 10, 11 and 15, chapter 491 of 

 the Acts of 1894, provide that the carcasses of diseased 

 animals shall not be used for food. Section 37 gives a list 

 of diseases to be deemed contagious under this act, tubercu- 

 losis being among the number. 



The Board of Cattle Commissioners has always construed 

 this law to imply that the carcass of an animal infected with 

 tuberculosis, no matter how slight or how localized the 

 lesion may be, is not to be used for beef, but must be either 

 rendered or buried. 



This appears to be an extravagant and wasteful ruling, as 

 there does not seem to be any well-grounded objection to 

 the use of the meat from very slightly diseased animals. 

 For instance, a beef may have a tuberculous mediastinal, or 

 bronchial lymphatic gland, no larger than the end of a 

 man's thumb, or even no larger than a pea, and be perfectly 

 healthy in other respects ; and yet, under a strict construc- 

 tion of the Massachusetts law, that animal must be rendered 

 or buried. Dr. Theobold Smith makes a division of tuber- 

 culous animals into two classes, " infected'" and " diseased.''* 

 The *' infected*' are those having some slight local glandular 

 lesion, yet enjoying perfect health in other respects. The 

 ^^ diseased" are those having more or less well-marked 

 lesions in various organs and glands of the body. The 

 saving would perhaps be more upon animals killed in 

 slaughter houses in condition for beef than among cows 

 killed by order of the Cattle Commissioners, for as a rule 

 milch cows are not in beef condition ; at the same time, it 

 must be borne in mind that the local inspectors are apt to 

 have slight lesions escape their notice when a cow is killed 

 for beef, but if a cow is tested with tuberculin, she is hunted 

 from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail, until the 

 nodule or nodules that caused the reaction are found. 



In Germany, France and Great Britain it is the usual 



