TUBERCULOSIS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
379 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
TUBERCULOSIS IN MASSACHUSETTS.* 
Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
During the past year much adverse opinion and antagon¬ 
ism has been aroused in Massachusetts over the legislation on 
tuberculosis. No other matter has attracted so much atten¬ 
tion among the members of the veterinary profession, and no 
subject has interested the farmers and agricultural classes to 
anything like the same extent. 
Of course the greatest interest has centered in the work 
of the State Board of Cattle Commissioners. 
You were informed a year ago of the nature of the bill 
adopted by the legislature in June, 1894. That bill gave the 
commissioners almost unlimited power. Up to that time ani¬ 
mals were condemned by physical examination alone. In 
September of last year, the commissioners decided to use the 
tuberculin test in place of physical examination. In order to 
do this, it was felt that not only should animals, as reported 
by the several inspectors, be tested with tuberculin, but that 
systematic regulations should be adopted throughout the 
State providing for the quarantining of all animals until 
tested ; for regulating the importation of all animals from 
without the State ; for providing a market at Watertown 
and Brighton at which tested animals might be procured by 
those desiring to have them ; and, lastly, for the regular and 
systematic examination of all neat cattle throughout the State, 
and the destruction of all animals that reacted to the test. 
The system adopted by the commissioners for the carry¬ 
ing out of these ideas embraced the following points: 
1st. The test with tuberculin of all suspected cases re¬ 
ported by local inspectors. 
2d. The regulation of the importation of all neat stock 
into, this Commonwealth from all points without its limits. 
3d. The quarantining of all such imported animals until 
*Report of State Secretary J. M. Parker, D.V.S., U.S.V.M.A., at Des Moines. 
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