1898] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 15 



Bovine Tuberculosis. — Some of the cows at the Kansas 

 Agricultural Colleg^e were suspected of tuberculosis. At 

 leng-th some of the cattle tenders were taken ill. One 

 died. Then a cow was killed and examined. Its lunges 

 were found to be "a mass of tubercles," the pulmonary 

 and costal plurae were covered with tubercles and the 

 entire entrails were diseased. The result from a tubercu- 

 lin test was that the entire herd of 58 cows was believed to 

 have become infected. "Probably the sheep and hog's also 

 are infected" reported the investig^ating- committee. 



We should remember that one-seventh of all deaths are 

 from tuberculosis and that cows are a prominent medium 

 of communicating it. In Massachusetts, a report on 3000 

 cattle, reported 18 per cent to be tuberculous. In North 

 Carolina 50 to 70 per cent were found infected. As many 

 as 50 per cent have at times been found to have tubercu- 

 losis of the udder. 



Slaughter Houses Breed Disease. — An official inspect- 

 ion of these establishments in this country shows that 

 many bacterial diseases are propag-ated therein. If one 

 hog- has trichinosis, the offal from its slaug-hter fed to other 

 hog-s will and does surely infect the rest with trichinee. 

 Rats are also present. They feed on the same offal and 

 and are infected. The dog-s and cats that eatthera become 

 infected. Hog- cholera, swine plag-ue, wire-worm, stag-g-ers 

 and other echinococcus diseases, parasites, etc., are mul- 

 tiplied in America faster than elsewhere because of the 

 lack of care and cleanliness resultant upon our haste to 

 g-et rich. 



The Metal-gnawing Beetle.— In 1888, an individual 

 specimen was broug-ht to New York from Mexico and 

 later others have been seen. They are 1 l-2inches long- and 

 somewhat mottled. They can cut their way out of wooden 

 or pewter receptacles if there be an exposed edg-e. They 

 do not bore. Mr. F. W. Devoe of Fulton st. has reported 

 before the N. Y. Micro. Society, the experiments made by 

 him. His beetle by aid of its mandibles cut away the 

 pe:wter between two holes and- united them in one as an 



