BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
403 
The ceitain transmission of the disease from one species to 
another led to special investigations in regard to the danger of 
mankind devouring the meat and dairy products derived from 
the bovine species, and the result of such experiments and in¬ 
vestigations is an accumulation of a mountain of facts which 
furnish conclusive evidence of the positive danger to man from 
this source. 
Dr. Burch in a paper read before the New York State 
Medical Society, pointed out the fact that in countries like 
Australia and the Sandwich Islands, consumption among the 
people did not exist till after dairy cattle were introduced. He 
also called attention to the fact that consumption prevails in all 
dair\ countries, but does not in countries where dairy products 
are not derived from the bovine species. He further says: 
“ Morocc °, wllere th ere are no European dairy cows, is exempt 
from tuberculosis ; while in Spain and Portugal, where dairying 
is carried on in the European style, tuberculosis prevails.” 
There are many instances where the disease in man can be 
diiecth traced to the infected food, but only a few instances 
will be given here. 
u Dr. Washington Matthews spent twenty-one years among 
the Indians. He states that their food is the primary cause oi 
tuberculosis among them, and that when the supply of fresh 
beef is liberal, the death rate from consumption is highest.” 
(Census of 1880.) 
“ Dr * Treome describes the poor, emaciated, diseased animals 
furnished to the tribes of northwestern Indians—how they eat 
the liver, tallow, and entrails, raw and fresh, and how the car¬ 
cass is dried, pounded, packed in skin, to be eaten later un¬ 
cooked, even though these animals died of disease. The Indian 
mortality from consumption is fifty per cent, of all deaths, at 
several points, while at Crow Creek, Dak., fifty out of the total 
Indian population of twelve hundred die yearly of consumption 
and scrofula.” The foregoing quotations are from the report of 
the Massachusetts Cattle Commission, which gives many facts 
-in regard to this question. 
