EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 233 
md every case of the disease has its starting point in the in- 
roduction of one or more of these germs into the body of 
he individual attacked. It is quite permissible to maintain 
hat the danger of the transmission of tuberculosis to mem- 
)ers of the human race through the eating of meat or drink- 
ng of milk from tuberculous animals has been exaggerated, 
)ut the danger certainly exists, and to a degree that gives 
luman sanitarians a right to urge the necessity of devising 
neasures to check the spread of the disease among cattle. 
3 ut even without that, the great loss which the disease in- 
licts on farmers and dairymen is surely sufficient incentive to 
lo whatever is feasible in the way of prevention. And that 
aises the question, Is tuberculosis a preventable disease ? 
To this question an affirmative answer may be given with- 
)ut hesitation. There are one or two very well known, but 
generally misinterpreted, facts that have an important bear- 
ng on this question. Why are cattle, above all other domes- 
icated species, the victims of tuberculosis? Not altogether, 
.s some suppose, because their tissues furnish a specially suit¬ 
able soil for the growth and multiplication of the tubercle 
)acillus. Sheep are so rarely the subject of tuberculosis that 
t is doubtful whether any natural case has been observed in 
his country, and yet we know that when attempts are made 
o infect sheep with that disease, the experiment succeeds 
veil enough. Again, both experiment and observation have 
hown that the tubercle bacillus, when once it gains entrance 
o the system of a horse, is capable of setting up a deadly 
orm of the disease, and yet the proportion of tuberculosis 
mong horses is insignificant. These facts suggest that the 
>revalence of tuberculosis among cattle may be less due to 
ny inherent susceptibility of the ox tribe than to something 
n man’s method of keeping these animals. May it not be due 
a great measure to the fact that cattle, particularly dairy 
ows, as they are commonly kept in this country, are found 
a circumstances specially favorable for the transmission of. 
he disease from the affected to the healthy animals? No 
veil-informed person naw imagines that overcrowding can 
generate tuberculosis; but what everyone must see is that 
