THE PROBLEM OF TUBERCULOSIS IN THE 



DAIRYING INDUSTRIES." 



By Mr. Alec Wilson. 



{Abstract) 



Mr. Wilson, in the course of an able and thoughtful lecture, 

 which was rendered additionally interesting by the projection of a 

 number of lantern views illustrating correct dairying methods, said 

 he proposed to accept the verdict carrying the bulk of authority 

 and to take it for granted that tuberculosis is transmissible from 

 cattle to mankind by the medium of milk. If the tuberculin test 

 were to be applied generally in Ireland about 500,000 cows would 

 have to be rejected. A farmer would be likely to lose ^4 or ^"5 

 on every reacting animal, running the cost into millions and making 

 it a matter for the State. But the taxpayers were hardly likely to 

 approve of a large additional charge for such a purpose, while the 

 abolition of so many animals would wreck the butter trade, because 

 what applied to the milk applied equally to cream and butter ; and 

 creamery pasteurisation, so far as the tubercle bacillus was 

 concerned, was in his opinion a pious fraud. Having investigated 

 the matter, he appeared before them that night as a heretic about 

 the tuberculin test, and he submitted that some of the authorities 

 had hugely over-estimated the value of the test as the means of 

 telling whether a given cow was fit to contribute to the milk supply 

 or not. Even if the compulsory universal introduction of the test 

 were both cheap and easy, he doubted if the course were desirable. 

 In fact, he was heretic enough to think the facts suggested the 

 adoption of such a course doing actual harm. Personally, he 

 thought it would be time enough to agitate for the exclusion of 

 reacting cows when proof had been produced that they were an 

 actual danger to the public health, and so far as he could learn, no 



