126 MAIKE STATE COLLEGE 



side of the question, there would not be the slightest protest against 

 destroying every case of bovine tuberculosis as soon as it could be 

 discovered by any available means. Some degree of danger to 

 human beings from tuberculous cattle is generally conceded. The 

 whole trouble when it comes to disposing of the three or four per 

 cent of tuberculous cattle in Massachusetts or the one per cent 

 more or less of tuberculous catile in Maine, hinges on the matter of 

 expense. It is human lives in the balance with property, and where it 

 is m}^ property against some one else's life, the property consideration 

 is apt to outweigh human life. There is a disposition to ignore, or 

 make light of the danger and magnify the loss. What is needed is a 

 more general appreciation of the danger, which is certainly real, if 

 not as extreme as the most radical would claim ; and the pecuniary 

 loss from the destruction of a few hundred head of sick and com- 

 paratively w^orthless cattle would have little weight. To entirely 

 eradicate human tuberculosis within any given time is impossible. 

 "We can't and don't want to use the necessary means ; this will be 

 a work of generations and almost entirely along the line of pre- 

 vention, and the extermination of bovine tuberculosis would be a 

 long step in that direction But with the means now at our dis- 

 posal it is perfectly feasible and when rightly viewed I believe it 

 will be considered highly desirable to free this country of human 

 tuberculosis within ten years. We have simply to destroy the 

 comparatively small number of animals that are now diseased, dis- 

 infect the places where they are stabled and institute a system of 

 periodical inspection that need be neither cumbersome nor expen- 

 sive compared to the great end to be gained. Half way measures 

 which simply attempt to control must prove more expensive in the 

 end and not nearly as satisfactory in the results. I know the 

 claim is made that, if all tuberculous cattle were destroyed, it would 

 be but a little time before there would be just as many : but this 

 does not seem to me reasonable. We know that individuals have 

 cleaned tuberculosis out of their herds and kept it out and what is 

 possible for an individual is possible for a community of individu- 

 als. The same system of inspection that will enable us to get rid 

 of tuberculosis in the first place will render it possible to keep rid 

 of it. Besides human consumptives will not alwaj^s be allowed to 

 spread disease broadcast and with all tuberculous cattle destroyed 

 there would be the chief danger to our herds. 



Until within very recent years when there has been any attempt 

 to exterminate bovine tuberculosis there has been an insurmount- 



