TUBERCULOSIS. 



tion in the air passages, lack of ventilation, constant stabling in dark, 

 damp, undrained stables and wet soils, greatly favour the reception 

 of the bacillus. 



The hereditary transmission of tuberculosis ras long since been 

 recognised, and until recently accorded a role much more important 

 than our most modern writers admit. Various conditions militate 

 against its occurrence ; the foetus is essentially a carnivorous animal, 

 living on the secretions of its mother and not on the direct products 

 of the vegetable kingdom. It has, therefore, that measure of resist- 

 ance which inheres in the flesh feeding as compared with the vegetable 

 feeding animal. It may be infected through the semen of the sire, 

 but the rule appears to be that the ovum thus early affected rarely 

 attains to its full intra uterine development. It may be affected from 

 the tuberculous generative organs of the dam, but here again abortion 

 is liable to cut short the existence of the embryo. Although there has 

 been cases recorded where a calf, just born, on dissection was found 

 to be tuberculous, the infrequency of such an occurrence may, how- 

 ever, be inferred from the fact that in thousands of cases not one calf 

 slaughtered is found to be affected. The disease may be there, never- 

 theless. 



The strict observance of sanitary conditions, good supply of whole- 

 some food, carefully avoiding enormous yields of milk and butter 

 for show and sa 1 e purposes, breeding and rearing animals with plenty 

 of lung room, discarding any animal, however bred, when signs of 

 tuberculosis have made their appearance, will go far to eradicate the 

 disease. It should be treated as a plague and treated as such until it 

 has disappeared from the herd. 



269. 



