TUBERCULOSIS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
791 
and its transmission to man are to be determined by scientific 
investigation, and in the countries of Knrope, as well as in our 
own land, are better understood than when the danger was first 
realized. There can be no doubt that in the advanced stage of 
the disease, especially when it has attacked the udder, the milk 
as well as the meat of the animal so diseased may convey the 
tubercle bacillus, and therefore become a grave danger when 
taken into the human system. If sterilization were universal, 
the danger from milk so affected would be removed. In the 
earlier stages of the disease, the danger is regarded by many 
competent authorities as slight, but it must be remembered that 
the tendency of the disease is constantly to advance. The ex¬ 
isting law restricts the use of tuberculin to cattle brought into 
the commonwealth from any point without its limits, and to 
cattle held at certain quarantine stations, but provides that it 
may be used, on the consent in writing of the owner, upon ani¬ 
mals in any other portion of the State, and upon animals con¬ 
demned as tuberculous upon physical examination. This re¬ 
striction expires by limitation on the first of June, 1897. The 
community is yearly becoming better informed on this subject, 
and therefore better prepared to adopt measures which shall be 
inspired neither by an exaggerated alarm on the one hand nor 
on the other hand by an unreasonable opposition to necessary 
sanitary precautions. With the co-operation of local boards of 
health and with the dissemination of accurate information on 
the subject by the board of agriculture and other agencies, it 
may be expected that the action of the State will be re-enforced 
by the normal, healthy pressure of customer upon dealer, in de¬ 
manding a general improvement in the sanitary condition of 
dairies, and their immunity from this dread disease through the 
application of this test, undoubtedly the most reliable yet dis¬ 
covered. Whatever general line cf policy your wisdom may 
adopt, I ask you to consider two suggestions : Is it right or wise 
that, as now, the State should pay full value for animals that 
have reached the most advanced stage of general tuberculosis 
and udder tuberculosis ? Such animals should be sought out 
by means of a thorough, periodic inspection, and slaughtered as 
being not only worthless, but a source of danger to the rest of 
the herd as well as to the community. At present the owner has 
no motive to check the disease in its earlier stages. If compen¬ 
sation were graded according to the condition of the animal as 
revealed by autopsy, the owner would have a direct interest in 
purging his herd of infected animals before they become worth- 
