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JOHN M. PARKER. 
heifers, the calves were usually fattened and slaughtered for 
veal, and I have not seen a single case of tuberculosis in any of 
the calves slaughtered. 
Further, it might be inferred from the reference to cholera 
infantum in the Report of the Cattle Commissioners, that a large 
proportion of these cases are caused by tuberculous milk. “ Milk 
diarrhoea or cholera infantum,” however, is not due to the bacil¬ 
lus of tuberculosis, but it is due to the absorption of ptomaines, 
or products of fermentation in impure milk—milk that has been 
contaminated, as a rule, after leaving the cow. 
In fact, the greatest danger to infants from using cows’ milk 
is not so much from tuberculous milk as from milk made impure 
by contamination after milking, or being made unfit for food 
through improper feeding of the cow. 
“ It is not necessary that milk should be infected with some 
specific organism to make it unfit for food.” (Med. Record, 
Sept. 19, 1891.) 
In face of these figures, then, and in view of the fact that 
the mortality from tuberculosis has fallen 35% within the past 
few years, is it just and reasonable to demand the general use of 
tuberculin in all herds throughout the country, with the whole¬ 
sale destruction of all animals that react to the test ? In Europe, 
where they use tuberculin to a great extent, they do not consider 
it necessary to destroy all animals that react. 
In referring to this matter, Prof. Rang of Copenhagen, Chief 
Veterinary Surgeon to the Danish Government, says : 
“It is an undoubted fact that, in the large dairies, when 
tuberculosis exists in them, it is so prevalent that the number of 
cows which give a hyperthermic reaction may be as high as 
eighty per cent. It is therefore evident that it must occasion an 
enormous loss to the proprietors to slaughter a large majority of 
their best milch cows, and to deprive them of the possibility of 
maintaining their stock without buying more—a matter of great 
importance when the cows are good. In my opinion such a 
course is much too severe. Why not keep for years those cows 
which are apparently healthy, and do not exhibit the least sign 
