82 REPORT OF THE No. 55 



purposes shall permit it to be examined, without cost to the owner, from time to 

 time, as to its freedom from disease by a veterinarian or veterinarians designated 

 by the health authority, nor shall any cow be brought into or sold within the State 

 of Louisiana for dairy purposes, and no milk therefrom sold unless said cow shall 

 have passed the required inspection by the local health authority. 



"Any cow which is found to be suffering from an incurable disease, or from 

 tuberculosis, shall be, at once, taken to the slaughtering pen and there slaughtered, 

 and such disposition made of the hide and carcass as the health authority shall 

 determine. The veterinarian or veterinarians, designated .by the health authority, 

 shall examine the milch cows in dairies and dairy farms in this State as' often as 

 the health authority shall order. Such veterinarian or veterinarians shall specially 

 examine to discover the presence of tuberculosis in such cows, and no cow not clini- 

 cally sound of tuberculosis shall be permitted to remain in the dairy, but shall be 

 condemned, removed and slaughtered as 1 hereinabove set forth. 



"A clinically sound cow, in this connection (i.e., as to tuberculosis) is denned 

 to be one free from swelling of bones, joints, lymph-nodes or swelling of other 

 soft parts ; from induration of portions of the udder ; from repeated diarrhoea and 

 discharge from the vagina; from the repeated distention of the rumen with gas; 

 from cough and physical signs of lung disease these pointing to tuberculosis. 



"Provided, that in the event any cow shall present one or more of the clinical 

 symptoms enumerated above, sufficient to create a reasonable doubt in the mind 

 of the veterinarian designated by the health authorities as to the existence of tuber- 

 culosis, it shall finally be determined by the application of the tuberculin test; and 

 if said cow reacts under said test, it shall be slaughtered as hereinabove provided." 



All cows found to be healthy are to be sold tagged and cannot be removed from 

 the dairy without notifying the health authorities. 



In explanation of this important change, the Secretary of the Louisiana State 

 Board of Health, Dr. Hamilton P. Jones, writes the following significant letter 

 to the Commission : 



"The reason the Bang method was left out in the more recent revision of the 

 Sanitary Code of the State of Louisiana was that it was deemed impracticable to 

 enforce this method with the money at the disposal of the Louisiana State Board 

 of Health, and also due to the very decided opinion of a number of members of 

 the Board as to whether the dangers of the spread of tuberculosis, through cattle, 

 was of a serious enough nature to warrant this tremendous expenditure at the 

 sacrifice of a more vigorous campaign carried on among members of the human 

 race itself. This was partially brought about by recent investigations made on the 

 Island of Cuba, having a, population of 2,000,000 souls, where absolutely no milk 

 except that which has been boiled is consumed, tuberculosis there being more pre- 

 valent than it is in any of the States of the United States, and in all of its forms 

 bone, intestinal and pulmonary. It was also found that the cattle on the island 

 rarely, if ever, have tuberculosis, either human or bovine/' 



The law of Louisiana also provides that no milk shall be sold for human con- 

 sumption containing more than 100,000 bacteria per cc. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



In the District of Columbia, which includes Washington, the capital of the 

 United States, and the home of all the experts of the Federal Government, a very 

 complete milk law is in force. Inspection if? the underlying principle. Tuberculin 



