NEW YORK STATE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
649 
othei complaint which is common to man and beast. 1 here is doubtless good reasons for 
this. This white plague of the north , by far the most deadly affection of man, killing one- 
eighth of civilized humanity, and attacking one-fourth or even one-third at some period of 
their lives, is also the most prevalent chronic disease of our dairy herds, and its extension 
in the human lace bears a remarkable ratio to the utilization of the bovine races for dairy 
products and beef. Piscivorous tribes like the western islander- of Scotland are usually 
remarkably free from tuberculosis, as are also the native Chinese, who are vegetarians. The 
ruling Tartai lacein China, on the other hand, are beef eaters and largely tuberculous. In 
•^§ypf Algiers in the comparative absence of bovine herds, the great influx of con¬ 
sumptives has not materially deteriorated the health of the native population, while in 
Italy, Australia, Hawaii and Madeira, where the population freely consume the products 
of the bo\ine race, the rush of phthisical health-seekers has led to a great extension of 
tuberculosis among the natives. Among tribes of our own Indians, who feed upon the raw 
flesh of the ox, too often diseased, 50 per cent, of the total mortality is from tuberculosis. 
Concurrent testimony, obtained on so large a scale, and from such widely different 
souices, is not to be lightly set aside. Tuberculosis is mostly a chronic disease, fre¬ 
quently lasting through a long lifetime. A certain number of cases recover, many more 
remain dormant, ready to burst into renewed activity whenever the health is otherwise 
undermined. It is essentially a “pestilence that walketh in darkness,” and often under 
an outward guise of health, the subject of the disease carries around the germs of certain 
death to his unsuspecting and more susceptible fellow. I he very latency of the disease in 
certain systems, and the absence of all prominent outward manifestation of illness, is a 
potent factor in the propagation of the infection. A disease that is quickly fatal, like 
smallpox, plague, yellow fever, or cholera in man, or anthrax, rinderpest, or Texas fever 
in cattle is easily dealt with, since wherever the germ exists in connection with susceptible 
subjects, its piesence will be speedily manifested, and it can easily be circumscribed and 
crushed out. T hese make their attack in broad daylight as with great sound of trumpet 
and roll of drum, and we are warned to foitify every post and strengthen every defense. 
But the stealthy tubercle bacillus, which glides up in the darkness and silence, and, as it 
were, saps our walls of defense without visible manifestation or audible sound, and sud¬ 
denly appears, when least expected, in the interior of our most trusted keep, is by far the 
most dangerous enemy. 
To neglect our defense because of this subtilty is to abandon our cause and play the 
poltroon. This is not the part of modern science ; this is not the course of the medicine 
of to-day and of the future. 
To the biologist who has studied the infinitesimal forms of parasitic life, the subtilty of 
the germ is but a challenge to meet its inroads by a more effective strategy, to meet its 
hidden mines by equally able countermines, and to turn an otherwise assured defeat into 
an accomplished victory. But in doing this he can never safely abandon the first princi¬ 
ples of warfare. He can never neglect a favorable opportunity"to reduce the numbers of 
the enemy, nor to prevent him from securing reinforcements. Yet this is just the course 
that is strongly urged in regard to tuberculosis. 
Because some recover, and because other cases remain long latent, we are urged to let 
such cases go on in their work of indefinitely multiplying the disease germ, and to attack them 
only when they become acute and deadly. Acute cases don’t live long to propagate the 
disease. Whence then comes the constant succession of cases? Mainly from the latent 
and recovering ones. Our own University herd is a standing example of a sound preven¬ 
tion of this infection. Formerly affected with tuberculosis, it has now for a number of 
years been entirely free from the affection, in spite of many risks, from visitors and other¬ 
wise, and in spite even of the presence in the barn for several months of a latent and un¬ 
suspected case, which had been brought from another herd. Had we left that dormant 
case in the herd after its discovery, it would in all probability have sooner or later devel¬ 
oped into active disease, and become the source of a new general extension of tuberculosis 
in the herd. It is impossible in a short lecture to lay down infallible and iron rules for 
dealing with this, or any similar disease, under all possible circumstances. Special con¬ 
ditions may warrant special measures. In the case of valuable animals where economic 
considerations would warrant the supervision, separate herds of dormant cases may be al¬ 
lowed for breeding purposes, if they can be kept carefully apart from all other stock, their 
milk products denied to man or animals, and all acute cases weeded out from the herd 
