112 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



i animal industry, or from that of danger 

 to human health. This disease has been 

 known since the dawn of history as one 

 jof the plagues of man and animals. 

 More time has been devoted, especially 

 in recent years, to the study of tuber- 

 culosis than to any other animal dis- 

 ease. This is partly due to the fact that 

 tuberculosis may attack all of the do- 

 mestic animals and various wild species 

 of animals, as well as man, and it is 

 therefore of more general concern to the 

 human race than the diseases which 

 affect only the lower animals. 



Conflicting opinions — The subject 

 of tuberculosis has been brought prom- 

 inently before the attention of the whole 



of controversy between Koch and his 

 disciples on the one side and the oppo- 

 site school on the other side; and also 

 with all other matters relating to the 

 nature and prevention of the disease. 



Tuberculosis, also known as consump- 

 tion, phthisis, pearl disease, tubercular- 

 pneumonia, tubercular-garget tubercu- 

 lar-meningitis, and by various other 

 names, is, as already stated, one of the 

 oldest diseases of which there is defi- 

 nite record in literature. There is per- 

 haps no subject in the whole field of 

 human or veterinary medicine which 

 has occasioned more extensive or more 

 bitter controversy than this disease. 

 Not only has the existence of the tuber- 



60 — ADVANCED CASE OF TUBERCULOSIS, N. M. EXPERIMENT STATION 



reading public not only on account of 

 the great prevalence of the disease, but 

 also on account of the wide difference 

 of opinion which prevails regarding its 

 nature and infectiousness. The con- 

 troversy concerning tuberculosis as- 

 sumed a particularly acute stage after 

 the announcement of Dr. Koch, at the 

 British Congress on Tuberculosis in 

 1901, to the effect that bovine and 

 human tuberculosis are two distinct dis- 

 eases, not capable of intertransmission 

 between man and animals. Since that 

 time, the already large mass of litera- 

 ture on tuberculosis has been increased 

 by the appearance of thousands of arti- 

 cles dealing with the immediate points 



cle bacillus been called in question, but 

 even the existence of the disease itself 

 has been ridiculed at times and consid- 

 ered as chiefly imaginary. On the other 

 hand, the extent and dangers of the dis- 

 ease have, by some writers, been so exag- 

 gerated and distorted as to make it ap- 

 pear strange that any animal or man 

 escapes infection. 



Points to be decided — The most im- 

 portant questions in the mind of practi- 

 cal farmers regarding tuberculosis may 

 be stated as follows: Is the disease a 

 specific affection? Are there several 

 distinct forms of tuberculosis; for ex- 

 ample, one in cattle, one in man, one in 

 birds and one in cold blooded animals, or 



