242  Annual  lieport  for  1904  of  Kopal  Veter  'inary  College. 
Glanders. 
For  years  past  nearly  every  Annual  Report  has  had  to  repeat 
the  statement  that  the  year  under  review  had  been  worse  than 
the  previous  one,  and  the  present  is  no  exception  to  that  rule, 
as  the  following  figures  will  show  : — 
Year 
No.  of  cases 
Year 
No.  of  cases 
1899 
1,172 
1902 
2,040 
1900 
1,858 
1903 
2,499 
1901 
2,370 
1904 
2,658 
To  deal  at  length  with  the  causes  of  this  unsatisfactory 
state  of  affairs  would  only  be  to  repeat  what  has  l)een  said  in 
previous  Reports.  No  improvement  need  be  expected  as  long 
as  outbreaks  of  glanders  are  dealt  with  according  to  a principle 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  one  that  has  inspired  the  regula- 
tions framed  to  prevent  the  spread  of  other  contagious  diseases. 
In  the  case  of  all  the  other  contagious  diseases  the  regulatioiis 
and  restrictions  deal  not  only  with  the  recognisably  diseased 
animals,  but  also  with  those  which  are  reasonably  suspected 
in  consequence  of  ascertained  contact  with  affected  subjects. 
Indeed,  in  some  cases,  anthrax  for  example,  the  restrictions 
which  are  occasional! placed  on  the  movement  of  “in  contact” 
animals  are  unnecessarily  severe.  In  the  case  of  glanders,  how- 
ever, when  an  outbreak  occurs  the  law  as  a rule  takes  no  notice 
of  the  “ in  contact  ” horses,  which  the  owner  is  free  to  dispose 
of  as  he  pleases  as  soon  as  the  visibly  glandered  animals  have 
been  destroyed  and  the  stable  has  been  disinfected.  In  this 
way,  in  most  outbreaks,  the  law  turns  its  back  on  many  affected 
animals,  which  are  therefore  left  to  perpetuate  the  disease  in 
the  same  stable  or  to  carry  it  into  a new  one  when  they  are 
sold. 
The  present  condition  of  affairs — or  a worse  one — will  have 
to  be  endured  as  long  as  effect  is  not  given  to  the  recommenda- 
tions which  were  made  by  the  Departmental  Committee  on 
Glanders  (1899).  At  the  present  time  the  disease  occasions  an 
annual  loss  which  cannot  l)e  jdaced  at  less  than  50,000L,  and 
an  additional  incentive  to  endeavour  to  suppress  it  is  furnished 
by  the  fact  that  it  every  year  claims  a number  of  human 
victims  among  those  who  are,  generally  unwittingly,  attending 
to  glandered  horses. 
The  Identity  of  Human  and  Bovine  Tuberculosis. 
In  some  paragraphs  which  appeared  under  the  above 
heading  in  the  preceding  Annual  Report  a short  account  was 
given  of  the  results  arrived  at  by  the  German  Commission, 
