690 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



To infect by the digestive tract the fluid must be rich in 

 bacilli ; diluted tuberculous milk, which is unable to infect 

 by ingestion, will readily produce the disease by in- 

 oculation. 



The medical profession may here learn a lesson, and 

 unless absolutely assured of the freedom of the cow from 

 tuberculosis, it would be far better and safer not to insist 

 on a special one being kept for invalids and children. 



The case we have presented stands thus : 28 per cent, 

 of our dairy stock suffer from tuberculosis not presenting 

 clinical appearances ; 2 per cent, suffer from clinical tuber- 

 culosis, viz., of the udder. What repressive measures exist 

 for the control of this state of affairs ? 



So long as the udder remains free from disease nothing 

 can be done. The law, which is most exacting with regard 

 to the milk from an anthrax case, takes no notice of tuber- 

 culosis, though in the former it is doubtful if a single 

 bacillus can pass the filter afforded by the mammary gland, 

 while in the other actual tubercular disease of the gland 

 may set in any day. Even when the disease is known to 

 affect the udder, all the law can do is to stop the sale of 

 such milk ; it cannot compel the owner to destroy the 

 animal, nor insist on the affected cow being removed from 

 amongst the healthy, where it is a source of extreme 

 danger. Certain municipalities have, however, obtained 

 powers, making it a punishable offence to keep a cow 

 affected with a tuberculous udder among other cows in 

 milk. 



On this point we cannot do better than quote that portion 

 of McFadyean's address dealing with this matter. 



' The present state of the law, or rather the ahnost entire absence of 

 any law deahng with tuberculous udder disease in cows, is a scandal 

 and a reproach to civilization. It scarcely sounds credible, but it is a 

 fact that the owner of a cow in the most advanced state of tuberculosis, 

 and exhibiting the most manifest signs of udder disease, may sell that 

 cow's milk for human food so long as the sale has not been specially 

 interdicted on the certificate of a veterinary surgeon, and no penalty 

 attaches to the crime of deliberately or carelessly placing on the market 

 a food material charged with the germs of a dangerous disease.' 



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