872 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
often escapes recognition for a long time. It may be classed 
with the pestilence that walketh in darkness , while the other dis¬ 
ease named, may be likened to the destructions that waste at 
noon day. He gave statistics, showing the deaths in various 
parts of the world in the human race, and mentioned its preva¬ 
lence as the same disease in the domestic animals, produced by 
the same micro-organism (the bacillus tuberculosis), and the 
difficulty of obtaining reliable statistics. In the Middle Ages, 
tuberculosis in animals was recognized as contagious, and laws 
were made against the use of affected carcasses as human food, 
which remain in force in Spain and Italy to the present day. In 
the early part of the present century its contagious character 
was doubted by medical practitioners. But at the present time, 
in the light of numerous investigations and experiments, all can¬ 
did scientific observers accept the doctrine of its contagious 
character.^ He described the germ, its history, and mode of 
propagation, and also the accessory causes which tend to pro¬ 
duce the disease. But none of these causes can produce the 
disease in the absence of the bacillus. He described the disease 
in tne vaiious organs and tissues of the body, and mentioned 
the difficulties experienced in diagnosis. He spoke strongly in 
favor of “tuberculin” as a used diagnostic agent, and said those 
wno had it most valued it the most highly. In conclusion he 
compared the geographic distribution of cattle and the preva¬ 
lence of tuberculosis in the human race, and showed the ulti¬ 
mate relations of cattle to man as a potent agent in the exten¬ 
sion and maintenance of consumption in the human family. A 
discussion followed, in which Messrs. O Veil, Wilson and others 
took part, and a vote of thanks was tendered to Mr. Crowforth, 
for his interesting and exhaustive paper. 
Professor Smith exhibited, from the museum of the veterinary 
college, specimens of “gangrenous ergotisun” of the legs of 
cattle, from cases he had investigated last spring. 
The sum of $25.00 was appropriated for a medal to be com¬ 
peted for by students of the Ontario Veterinary College at the 
approaching spring examinations. 
