664 
J. LAW. 
calculated to prove hurtful or even fatal to certain members 
of the human race, is not for a moment considered. 
• Hence we are continually met by the argument that tuber¬ 
cle is rare in the muscular system of cattle, and that muscle 
juice is inimical to the bacillus and that therefore the mus¬ 
cular tissue which forms the great mass of the dressed carcass 
may, as a rule, be safely eaten even though the internal organs 
may have been affected with tubercle. In Germany and other 
European countries the flesh of animals in which the tubercles 
are found in only one organ or in two isolated ones is passed 
as wholesome. It is only when the tubercles are found in the 
bones, or in the muscles or in the lymphatic glands among 
these, or finally when the tubercles are so generally distrib¬ 
uted in different parts of the body as to show that the bacilli 
must have been carried by the blood that the meat is rejected 
from use as human food. 
So with milk and other dairy products. Many claim, with 
Nocard and McFadyean, that the milk is harmless so long as 
the udder is quite free from tubercle, and that it is only when 
tubercle is present in that gland that the secretion is to be 
feared. 
Altogether apart fromt these discussions as to the whole¬ 
someness of uncooked flesh and meat, it is safe to say that, 
up to the present, every writer on the subject holds that even 
the infecting tuberculous meat and milk is rendered absolutely 
harmless by cooking. The consensus of professional opinion 
on this subject is tersely given by Salmon and Smith in their 
article on tuberculosis in the work on the “Diseases of Cattle,” 
published by the Bureau of Animal Industry. “Fortunately 
tubercle bacilli are readily destroyed by the temperature of 
boiling water, and hence both meat and milk are made entirely 
safe, the former by the various processes of cooking, the latter 
by boiling for a few minutes.” 
But this is altogether too narrow a view to take of the sub¬ 
ject, and it is liable to lead to the most serious and fatal 
results if put into every-day practice. The professional mind. 
