Tukerculosis. 527 



actioa P^the small rodents and pigs, utterly, fqrbids. the unproved 

 assumption tUat. it is on the contrary harmless, to mani 



If .the oJ)j,ect of the sariitarian.w.ere qierelytp. delay, a. fatal re- 

 sult in lii§.tubercu.lpijs gatieiitj while .Ije accepted .tbe^preyalence: 

 of tuberculosis as, inevitable for all future, tinie, the .acknowledged 

 lessened receptixity , , qf the , ox f pr the bacillus from, ,man -. would 

 mean.more and would, be at lea§t wortliy pf;a hearing, but. as the 

 extinction of a .disease., germ,, and its, representative, plague must 

 ever b,e the, first ojiject^ ariy raovement toiward the preservation in 

 cattleof. a. germ which is deadly toman and much, mpre. so to 

 cattle, must be held as stibyersive of the prime,.purppse.pf sani- 

 tary wprk. This is. true even . i,f we allow, . for the. sake pf argu- 

 ment, that only, a few of.thehpvine bacilli are capable of danger- 

 ously colonizing t^ie , hunian bpdy, and that special environment 

 is needful to. a,llow pf such successful .cplqnizatipn. . ,0n the. pther 

 hand the limited recepljiyity pf the.px for the, bacillus from man. 

 is the greatest, encouragement to active wprk to exterminate 

 tuberculosis from P.ur herds. It is impossible ,tp adppt in man 

 the summary measures that are sp successful in the speedy stamp- 

 ing out of the plagues of the lower animals, so that tuberculosis 

 in the human family can pnly be eradicated by sIpw degrees, and 

 therefore will long continue for pur herds the -danger from 

 the human side, but just so far as the susceptibility of cattle to 

 human tuberculosis is limited, in the same ratio are our hands 

 strengthened in effective work for the extinctipn pf cpnsumptipn 

 in Pur herds and fpr preserving their spundness after they . have 

 once been purified. If they were t.p be reinfected by the presence 

 of any consumptive perspn we might well despair pf success in 

 face of a wide prevalence pf tuberculpsis in man, but since it is 

 only exceptipnally that cattle suffer from man, outbreaks coming 

 from this source can the more easily be taken care of. In this 

 view tuberculosis is approximated spmewhat mpre clpsely tp the 

 other bovine plagues (lung plague, rinderpest) which can be 

 stamped out with the greatest ease and certainty, so that as a 

 purely economic measure the argument for, the. speedy extinction 

 of tuberculosis in our herds is,. reenforced. 



TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS. 



lyike all deady infectious diseases in the lower animals, tuber- 

 culpsis is not to-be profitably treated as- a rule. In the case pf 



