Iiire>il!ij(it!ij)t>i ill 1888/o/' fJie JRoijal Agrl'-iilfnra} Socicfi/, .323 
man than is suspected, as it may easily be mistaken for other 
diseases, as it lias been in cattle ; but it is impossible to decide 
whether or. not it is contracted by direct transmission from the 
animal to man by mere contact with the diseased excretion, or 
by the consumption of meat from affected subjects. When the 
affection is purely local, the fair presumption is that the flesh is 
not infective, and it must always be remembered that animal 
food is cooked before Ijeing eaten. That the subject is one of 
great moment from a public-health standpoint cannot be denied. 
Tuberculosis. 
The cases of tuberculosis in cows which were sent to the 
College in the past year were of a very severe form, and an op- 
portunity was afforded of studying the effects of the consumption 
of milk and flesh by animals — rabbits, which are eminently sus- 
ceptible to the disease. 
It has been accepted as a fact by pathologists that milk of 
tuberculous cows is not infective unless the udder is involved in 
the disease. In two of ^. 
the cases the udder was 
affected, as proved by 
the discovery of the tu- 
bercle bacillus in speci- 
mens of the milk. 
For the purpose ol 
illustrating the appear- 
ance of the organisms in 
milk the figure No. 4 is 
introduced. 
Rabbits fed on the 
milk developed tubercu- 
lous ulcers in the intes- 
tines ; and others, into 
which the milk was in- 
jected under the skin, 
died from general tuber- 
pi /-\ ' 
culosis. Ilabbits and • '"^-^KWA^eW 
guinea pigs fed on the 
flesh of the diseased cows 
did not take the disease. 
These results are signi- 
ficant, but the experiments with the flesh will have to be repeated 
before any positive conclusion can be deduced from them. It is 
evident, however, that milk containing the bacilli is certainly 
infective. 
Specimen of milk shoiving the bacilli of tubercle 
among the oil globules {magnijied 800 diam.). 
