312 
Tuberculosis in Animals, and 
even as regards the animals slaughtered there. In addition to 
this it must be borne in mind that in these slaughter-houses the 
meat is subject to inspection ; and it is only such animals as 
look healthy that are taken there. Animals, obviously tuber- 
culous, wasters and piners, are disposed of in private slaughter- 
houses, where there is no inspection either of the carcass or of the 
internal organs. The meat, if firm and of good colour, is sent 
into a dead-meat market where it may be passed ; or if the car- 
cass is not sufficiently good for the open market, it may be dis- 
posed of in other ways on private premises. It is, therefore, 
evident that in this country no reliable statistics as to the 
prevalence of tubercle in animals have ever been obtained. 
In other countries it is much the same : thus, in Victoria, 
when the Tuberculosis Commission sat in 1884, the discrepant 
statements given in evidence before them by stock-owners and 
veterinary surgeons led them to continue their inquiry for 
another year, and obtain a return of all the tuberculous animals 
killed in the Melbourne Abattoirs. Although they obtained 
the number of carcasses in which tubercle was found there, it 
could not be accepted as any indication of the extent to which 
the disease existed among the cattle throughout the colony. 
The statistics collected in other countries are open to the same 
objections. Being merely slaughter-house records, they do not 
represent the condition of animals throughout the whole of a 
country. 
It has been stated that, in some of the cowsheds and dairy 
yards of New York and Brooklyn, not less than half the cows are 
tuberculous, but no very clear confirmatory evidence of this has 
ever been adduced. The only point of value brought out in 
these slaughter-house statistics is the greater proportion or per- 
centage of old animals (cows) affected with tubercle, as compared 
with young stock reared and fed for the butcher. In calves and 
young cattle not exceeding two years old comparatively few cases 
are to be seen, while in those from two to six years old the pro- 
portion is much greater, and in those over six years the percen- 
tage is still further increased. It is supposed by some that 
certain breeds of cattle are more liable to, and more frequently 
affected with, tuberculosis than others. This is a mere assump- 
tion. There is no breed of cattle in Great Britain in which this 
affection has not been found, and until we have an accurate cen- 
sus of the numbers of each breed, and are able to compare this 
with the number of cases of tubercle found in each, no conclusion 
of any value on this point can be arrived at. 
The question has often been asked, how far and to what 
extent is tuberculosis contagious ? Even at the present time, 
