594 
E. P. NILES. 
That it furnishes both the medical and veterinary profession 
with a serious problem to solve, is an accepted fact. 
That it affords the state legislatures an opportunity to do 
something for the benefit of their constituents, is a fact yet to be 
impressed upon the minds of those honorable bodies, for without 
the proper legislation the veterinary and medical profession can 
do practically nothing toward stamping out the disease. We 
can advise, and continue to advise until Gabriel blows his trum¬ 
pet; but it does no good with the majority of the masses unless 
we have the power to put our advice into practice. 
That the aid of the state authorities is needed to check the 
ravages of this disease, I shall attempt to show later on in my 
paper. 
No doubt you are all familiar with the history of tuberculo¬ 
sis, but to bring the subject more vividly before you in all of its 
phases I shall worry you for a few moments with the views of 
our ancestors, and in so doing endeavor to demonstrate to you 
that those who are now advocating the infectiousness of the dis¬ 
ease and calling for public aid are not doing so without a firm 
foundation upon which to base their arguments. Tuberculosis 
has been known, although imperfectly understood since the days 
of Moses; for in the laws of Moses we find that the flesh of tu¬ 
berculosis animals was discarded as unwholesome. In the ninth 
century European people made laws which forbade the use of 
tuberculous meat. These laws were continued, or made more 
rigid, as late as 1858. In 1702 the disease was coupled with 
syphilis, and, hence, named the French disease. About this 
time, or soon after, Germany made stringent laws, compelling 
the slaughter of all tuberculous animals. But in 1783 it was 
shown that the diseases had no connection with each other, and 
the strict regulations were at once relaxed. From the above it 
would appear that the former regulations were made solely 
through the fear that tuberculosis was of a syphilitic nature, and 
that when this was disproved all fear of the disease was ban¬ 
ished. We cannot, however, help but believe that among the 
more learned class of people this was not the case, but among 
