TUBERCULOSIS. 
59 7 
man subject, whose sputum contained a large number of the 
bacilli of tuberculosis, was recently reported to the writer by a 
local physician. 
That animals may contract the disease from tuberculous at¬ 
tendants is also a question worthy of consideration. The prev¬ 
alence of tuberculosis in the lower animals is alarming, and if 
the statistics were carefully collected it would be seen that the 
disease is much more prevalent in the human family than is gen¬ 
erally supposed by the public. In the human family the average 
ratio of deaths from tuberculosis to the total mortal^ is 14 per 
cent, while in some localities it runs as high as 33 to 50 per 
cent. Prof. Law, of the Cornell University says : “ If the 5,490 
deaths from tuberculosis which occur every year in the city of 
New York could be brought together in an epidemic lasting but 
one week, no small-pox, cholera or yellow-fever scare would 
approach the panic which would thus be created.” Again : “ If 
we take the whole civilized world and compare with the tuber¬ 
culosis mortality, all the accumulated deaths from the war, fam¬ 
ing’ plague, cholera, yellow-fever and small-pox, we find that 
the latter are comparatively very insignificant.” Yet compar¬ 
atively nothing is done to stamp out, or check the ravages of 
this terrible disease. If in the lower animals, cattle especially, 
the disease was one that produced death in a short time the 
mortality in one year would be greater than that of all other 
diseases combined. Accurate statistics are wanting to give the 
accurate percentage of tuberculous animals in our herds, due to 
a lack of systematic professional inspection of all live animals, 
and those slaughtered for food. That the disease is more preva¬ 
lent among the bovine than any of the other animals is probably 
due to the fact of their being more closely housed, more highly 
fed for dairy purposes and receiving less exercise. All domes¬ 
tic animals, however, take the disease readily enough when in¬ 
oculated with it. In dairy cows and breeding cattle the disease 
is much more prevalent than in any other cattle, due to the fact 
that their vitality is lowered by high feeding, lack of proper ex¬ 
ercise and being over crowded in poorly ventilated stables. It 
