THE VETERINARIAN AS A PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER. 
453 
to man from lower animals is now an accepted fact by practically 
every one. The New York Board of Health, in a recent report, 
states that a large percentage of infant tuberculosis and that 
about 2 per cent, of adult tuberculosis is of bovine origin. It 
has been further shown that about io per cent, of articular tuber¬ 
culosis of the human is also of bovine origin. Milk sickness, 
a disease primarily of cattle, and which is also transmissible to 
man, made its appearance in New Mexico three years ago. Malta 
fever, a disease of goats, transmissible to the human, is very 
common to the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and 
this disease, according to report, has recently been identified in 
Texas. 
The medium through which the human obtains the infective 
micro-organisms causing tuberculosis, milk sickness and Malto 
fever is invariably milk. The prevention of the transmission of 
these diseases to man is dependent upon the identification of tuber¬ 
culosis or milk sickness in cattle and Malto fever in goats and 
the prohibition of the use of milk from any animal affected with 
any one of the above diseases; the establishment of a proper 
quarantine; and the final disposition of the diseased animals or 
carcasses and disinfection of the premises. A man capable of 
tuberculin testing cattle and interpreting the results, and capable 
of diagnosing milk sickness and Malto fever in the milk supply¬ 
ing animals, is alone efficient as a milk and dairy inspector. 
Rabies is a disease common to the domestic animal and man, 
and is readily transmissible by means of the saliva and other 
secretions. Anthrax is another disease that affects practically all 
mammals, the infection of which is readily transferred from ani¬ 
mal to animal through wound inoculations and possibly also by 
milk. Cow pox and foot and mouth disease are diseases of ani¬ 
mals that are capable of being transmitted to man through milk. 
The above named diseases, being common to the domestic ani¬ 
mals, are diagnosed and efficiently controlled by one versed in 
comparative pathology, that) is, a veterinarian. 
Milk and dairy products are now extensively used as human 
food, in fact, from one-fifth to one-sixth of the food consumed 
