498 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



seem to realize that sunlight is just as essential to the health 

 of animal life as it is to plant life. There is no reason why 

 barns should not be as light as dwelling-houses ; and the 

 responsibility for its exclusion from barns must rest with the 

 old theorists, who claimed that cattle would fatten and do 

 better when kept in the dark than when exposed to the 

 light. It has seemingly taken a long time for this idea to be 

 abandoned, and even at the present time it seems to be 

 impossible to teach some people that light is not detrimental 

 to the health of dairy stock. It is especially necessary 

 where, through want of fresh air and exercise, the circula- 

 tion is sluggish and the system depressed. 



Light stimulates the circulation, and with increased oxi- 

 dation more C02 is given off and the functions of the whole 

 body are quickened and enlivened ; but sunlight also retards 

 the growth of germ life, and the vitality of certain forms of 

 bacteria, including tubercle bacilli^ is destroyed in a few 

 hours' time by the direct action of the sunlight. Sunlight is 

 not only the best, but the cheapest, disinfectant we know. 



In referring to the question of sanitation and tuberculosis, 

 Dr. James Russell, in the report of the Glasgow Board of 

 Health, says that : — 



The death rate from " phthisis" has fallen from 2,849 per mill- 

 ion to 2,316, and from other tubercular diseases from 1,090 per 

 million to 884, in both cases 19 per cent., — a result which quite 

 casts into the shade the improvement in Prussia and Saxony, 

 quoted from Cornet, which he puts to the credit of special pro- 

 phylaxis. Clearly, tben, we are warranted in asserting that among 

 infectious diseases tuberculosis is the most amenable of all to gen- 

 eral hygienic measures ; that, in fact, from these alone as good 

 results are obtained as from hygienic measures plus isolation, dis- 

 infection, etc., in the case of diseases popularly known as infec- 

 tious. It is not implied that special measures directed against the 

 infectivity might not have produced even better results ; but in 

 view of what has been accomplished, and in view of the difficul- 

 ties in the way of special prophylaxis, it is contended that more is 

 to be expected from general hygiene. 



The New York Medical Record (Dec. 30, 1893), in re- 

 ferring to sanitary conditions in Great Britain, says : — 



