PREVALENCE OF BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
457 
on its bulletin, as a step in the right direction for the prevention 
of this, the most universal and insidious ot all diseases in the 
animal kingdom. 
Authors cited: Makenzie, Law, McFadyean, Saunders, Rob¬ 
ertson and Billings. 
PREVALENCE OF BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
By Austin Peters, D.V.S., Jamaica Plains, Mass. 
A paper read before the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: —I have been invited to 
open the discussion of the subject we have taken for considera¬ 
tion this evening by saying a few words upon the prevalence of 
bovine tuberculosis, and in doing so I shall be as brief as possi¬ 
ble because we have a number of interesting speakers to listen 
to, who will call your attention to this question from different 
points of view, and also because it is very difficult or almost 
impossible to obtain any reliable figures showing its frequency 
among our neat stock. 
Tuberculosis has been known for all time and among all 
civilized people, and among all habitable climates; among cattle 
keeping people it is known among their bovines, and while it 
continues to exist among the human race, it. will prevail among 
their cattle, its prevalence among the latter depending upon how 
they are kept, where they are kept, what they are kept for, and 
upon the susceptibility of certain breeds or the constitutions of 
certain individuals. 
Among the human family, as well as among the ox tribe, has 
Pharaoh’s dream been constantly repeated, from the days of 
Joseph to the present day, the seven well favored, fat-fleshed 
kine have been devoured over and over again by the seven ill- 
favored and lean-flesh kine, which I have not the least doubt 
were suffering from tuberculosis, and it is not even necessary to 
have the seven ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine to devour the 
seven healthy ones, for if a single tuberculous cow be placed in 
a dark, badly ventilated stable, with the seven well-favored ones, 
