428 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



was included because it was a contagious disease, as a matter 

 of fiict it was not so treated by this Board. We have already 

 stated tliat tuberculosis in cattle is identical with consumption 

 in a human beino;:. The true nature of this disease and its com- 

 municability was not discovered until 1882, when Koch first 

 found it to be a germ disease. No government attempted to 

 include it among contagious diseases in animals until France so 

 placed it in 1887. 



In 1892 this Board came to the conclusion that it was a men- 

 ace to the public health, and that steps should be taken to 

 prevent its further spread ; and accordingly it recommended to 

 the Legislature of that year the passage of an act which should 

 provide some systematic method of locating the animals which 

 were affected by the disease ; and accordingly an act was passed 

 entitled " An act to prevent the spread of tuberculosis " (chap- 

 ter 195), which provided for the appointment of inspectors 

 throughout the State, giving them power to — 



. . . inspect all animals kept for the production of milk, and shall 

 report to the board of cattle commissioners all suspected cases of 

 tuberculosis which come to their notice, among animals intended for 

 slaughter or kept for the production of milk. 



This act further amended section 13 of the act of 1887 by 

 providing that, — 



In all cases of tuberculosis, farcy or glanders, the commissioner 

 having condemned the animal infected therewith, shall cause such 

 animal to be killed without an appraisal, but may pay the owner or 

 any other person an equitable sum for the killing and burial thereof ; 

 and may also pay a reasonable sum for the animal destroyed, should 

 a post-mortem examination prove that said animal was free from the 

 disease for which it was condemned. 



The law which was in force at the time this act was passed 

 authorized the destruction of diseased animals without appraisal 

 or payment ; it was but natural, therefore, that, as soon as it 

 was realized that tuberculosis was a contagious disease, which 

 should be eradicated if possible, the same policy should be 

 adopted as in the case of glanders, especially because at this 

 time the methods pursued in determining the disease were 

 identical with those of glanders ; that is, in both cases reliance 



