DISEASES OP THE BLOOD. 129 



of scrofulous cowsj though mucli altered from healthy 

 conditions, finds its way into the market; numbers of 

 children and weak persons are fed on uncooked milk. 

 Cases of intestinal and mesenteric scrofula are frequent 

 in man. We cannot avoid the conclusion that many 

 human beings share the fate of BoUinger^s pigs ! Next we 

 must ask ourselves about the flesh of scrofulous animals. 

 This is almost invariably consumed as food, and is not 

 often thoroughly cooked. We are not yet in a position 

 to say that ill effects result from this, but since such flesh 

 is under grave suspicion, would reject it, for we consider the 

 chance of causing serious human disease must not be run, 

 even though meat which may be harmless must be sacrificed. 

 Certainly all scrofulous deposit must be removed before the 

 meat is sold, under protest, if it is found necessary to let it 

 go into the market. For we are sure that feeding animals 

 on scrofulous tumours has given rise to the disease. 



Gerlach, the discoverer of the transmissibility of 

 tubercle through the digestive organs, as a result of most 

 careful investigations, decided that " the flesh of a tuber- 

 culous cow is infectious, and is unfit for food when there 

 is decided disease of the lymphatic glands, when the 

 tubercles are breaking up and becoming cheesy, and when 

 tubercles are found in different parts of the body^^ 

 (' Veterinary Journal,^ v, 203, &c.). 



Quite recently Yirchow has decided that human tubercle 

 is not the same as the disease in the ox ; and in the 'Lancet ' 

 for 19th June, 1880, Dr. Crighton gives this matter a new 

 aspect by stating that in the human subject two tubercu- 

 lous diseases occur, one of these being the true pathological 

 equivalent of bovine tuberculosis, bearing to it the same 

 relations which human " glanders '' bears to equine.^ 



Treatment. — In phthisis and tabes the prognosis must 

 be decidedly unfavorable. As a rule they end in death, 



1 While this sheet is passing through the press, receipt of ' Tuberculosis 

 from a Sanitary and Pathological point of view ' reminds me that in justice 

 to the persistent eiforts of the author, Mr. Oeorge Fleming, P.R.C.V.S., 1 

 must mention him as the most forcible exponent in this country of the ill 

 effects which may result from feeding on milk, meat, and tuberculous 

 material from cattle affected with this serious disorder. 



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