346 TUBERCULOSIS AS A TYPE OF BACTERIAL DISEASE 



bovine animals were subsequently inoculated, has, up to the present, in the case of 

 five of these remaining strains, ultimately given rise in the bovine animal to general 

 tuberculosis of an intense character ; and we are still carrying out observations in 

 this direction. 



We have very carefully compared the disease thus set up in the bovine animal by 

 material of human origin with that set up in the bovine animal by material of bovine 

 origin, and so far we have found the one, both in its broad general features and in 

 its finer histological details, to be identical with the other. We have so far failed to 

 discover any character by which we could distinguish the one from the other ; and 

 our records contain accounts of the post-mortem examinations of bovine animals 

 infected with tuberculous material of human origin, which might be used as typical 

 descriptions of ordinary bovine tuberculosis. 



The results which we have thus obtained are so striking, that we have felt it our 

 duty to make them known, without further delay, in the present interim report. 



The Commission defer to a further report all narration of the 

 details, of their experiments, as well as aU discussions, including those 

 deaUng with the influence of dose and of individual as well as racial 

 susceptibility, with questions of the specific virulence of the different 

 strains of bacilli, with the relative activity of cultures of bacilli and 

 of emulsions of tuberculous organs and tissues, and with other points. 



Meanwhile they have thought it their duty to make this short 

 interim report, for the reason that the result at which they have 

 arrived, namely, that tubercle of human origin can give rise in the 

 bovine animal to tuberculosis identical with ordinary bovine tubercu- 

 losis, seems to them to show quite clearly that it would be most unwise 

 to frame or modify legislative measures in accordance with the view 

 that human and bovine tubercle bacUli are specifically different from 

 each other, and that the disease caused by the one is a wholly different 

 thing from the disease caused by the other. 



In this final conclusion as to administrative measures both German 

 and British Commissions agree. They also agree as to the inter- 

 communicability of bovine and human tuberculosis.* 



Diagnosis of Bovine Tubepculosis. — There are three methods 

 of diagnosis — clinical, bacteriological, and by means of tuberculin. 



(a) Clinical. — ^When tuberculosis affects the lungs and respiratory 

 organs generally, it is accompanied by a frequent cough, but no fever. 

 There is disturbance of the respiration, the breathing being quickened 

 by slight exertion or excitement, and the cough stimulated by 

 changes of temperature. The departure from the normal in the 

 relative length of the inspiratory and expiratory movement (the 

 expiration being markedly prolonged) can be readily seen as a rule, 

 and not uncommonly in these cases a rough harsh sound may be 

 heard in the throat during respiration. By auscultation it is possible 

 sometimes to detect dull portions of the lung surrounded by areas of 

 increased resonance. The vesicular murmur is louder and harsher 



* This subject is fully discussed in Bull. 53 (1904), of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 

 (Salmon). 



