246 ALEXANDER BURK. 
Of the twenty-nine cases discovered, there was not one 
among them but what showed some pulmonary lesion. I do 
not wish to be understood as thinking there is no such thing 
as localized tuberculosis; this has been demonstrated by in¬ 
oculation, but from my experience it would seem that inva¬ 
sion most frequently takes place through the respiratory pas¬ 
sage. 
Of course, we must take into consideration that the cows 
coming here are generally thought to be sound, that is we do 
not get all the animals used in the cheaper grades of beef 
thus it will be seen that the above statistics are not the actual 
statistics of the State ; still, I think a fair average of abattoir 
statistics. An acquaintance with the subject of inspection, as 
reported in the current professional journals of the day, will 
convince any one unprejudiced that we are better off than 
any European country reported. That is, the percentage of 
tuberculosis among our animals is less than in any European 
country. The number of animals killed outside the abattoir 
can only be a very small number compared with the other, 
and it would be unfair to think that all such are diseased, or 
even one-fourth of them. 
So far as can be judged from my short period of inspec¬ 
tion even among our Eastern cattle, tuberculosis exists to a 
much less extent than among animals in the populous centers 
of most European countries, and among our Western bul¬ 
locks, tuberculosis has almost no existence whatever, and this 
class of animals represent two-thirds of our cattle population. 
I may add in connection with the foregoing, that in rela¬ 
tion with the abattoir we have an establishment where fer¬ 
tilizers are manufactured, and dead animals of all kinds are 
received, such as horses and cattle, many of which are cows; 
these animals represent a fair average of the cows of our neigh¬ 
borhood ; having died, the owners have seldom any disposi¬ 
tion to hide them. I have examined all the cattle brought 
here and so far my record is as follows: 
Received dead cows at abattoir from Oct. i, 
’89, till April 1, 90 - - - - 80 
Number found with tuberculous lesions - 6 
Percentage.7.5 
