SANITARY SIGNIFICANCE 21J 



if ever either contagious or infectious in the sense that it can be 

 transmitted from one animal to another or from one of the 

 lower animals to man. There seems to be no indisputable 

 case on record of such a transmission although a few cases are 

 very suggestive. It is the opinion of most pathologists that 

 when the disease is restricted to small tumors and these are 

 localized, that the affected parts should be destroyed but the 

 remainder of the carcass may be used for human consumption. 

 In Bulletin No. 2, of the Board of L,ive Stock Com- 

 missioners of Illinois, published in 1891 is the report of the 

 somewhat famous trial in the Peoria county circuit court of the 

 case of J. B. Greenhut et a/, vs. John M. Pearson ef al. to re- 

 cover damages for the rejection and destruction of certain 

 actinomycotic cattle, in which is given the testimony of a large 

 number of distinguished veterinarians and sanitarians concern- 

 ing the wholesomeness of the meat of cattle affected with this 

 disease. Although at that time there was a strong popular 

 sentiment against the use of such animals, the jury after a 

 forty hours' consideration reported their inabilitv to agree and 

 were discharged by the court. The most conspicuous feature 

 of this evidence was the inability of the witnesses to produce 

 satisfactory evidence of the communicability of the disease 

 from animal to man. This evidence did much to show that 

 the danger from this disease in eating meat of affected animals 

 was after all a matter of opinion, fear or sentiment rather than 

 a demonstrated fact. Mayo, in his bulletin upon the subject, 

 states that there is no danger of persons contracting this dis- 

 ease from eating the flesh of affected animals provided the 

 visibly diseased portions are removed. 



REFERENCES. 



1. BOSTROEM. Untersuchungen iiber des Aktinomykose des Men- 

 schen. Beitrag. zur path. Anat. 11. ziir allgr. Pathologic. Bd. IX. 

 (1S91) S. I. 



2. Israel. Neue Beobachtungen auf dun Gebeite des Mvkosen 

 des Menschen. Virchou^s Archives. Bd. LXXVI. (1878)8.11! 



3. M.w'o. Actinomycosis bovis or "lump)' -jaw." Bulletin No. j8^ 

 Kansas State Agric. Exp. Station. 1S92. 



4. NocARD. Notes sur ractinomycose des animaux. Recueil de 

 Med. Veter. Vol. LXIX. (1892) p. 167. 



